Atmospheres and Climates of Exoplanets

系外行星的大气和气候

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06517
• 负责人: Menou, Kristen
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=738952
• 关键词: Atmospheres; Climates; Exoplanets

Hot Jupiters and Earth-like exoplanets are among the most interesting extrasolar planets amenable to study. Over the next 5-10 years, observational efforts including TESS, SPiROU-NIRPS, JWST and ELTs will dramatically improve the quantity and the quality of the data available to characterize their properties, atmospheres and climates. This brings new and significant modelling opportunities to refine our understanding of these planets. Recently, predictions from the magnetic induction mechanism have been observationally confirmed, making it likely that ohmic dissipation and magnetic drag are responsible for the radius inflation phenomenon in hot Jupiters. As a principal architect of this solution, I propose to lead an effort to refine models of magnetic induction in hot Jupiters so that it can be used as quantitative tool to better understand the structure and evolution of these planets as a population. I will also pursue a program aimed at clarifying the role and magnitude of turbulent vertical transport in hot Jupiter atmospheres. Together, this will illuminate formation scenarios and directly impact our understanding of atmospheric observables for this class of planets. Finding Earth-like habitable planets around nearby stars for follow-up characterization with JWST or ELTs is a key driver of exoplanetary science today. My group has made important contributions regarding the diversity of climates possible on Earth-like exoplanets, in particular cold habitable worlds subject to global climate cycles or habitable snowball states. I will continue to explore the rich parameter space of habitable climate with one major goal: provide the broad context needed to interpret future discoveries. This will be achieved through a well-posed forward-modelling strategy: simulated observations of model climates will be used to understand which aspects of a complex climate system can be reliably inferred from the limited set of observational constraints available to astronomers over the next decade and beyond.

热木星和类地系外行星是适合研究的最有趣的系外行星。在接下来的5-10年里，包括TESS、SPiROU-NIRPS、JWST和elt在内的观测工作将极大地提高可用数据的数量和质量，以表征它们的性质、大气和气候。这带来了新的和重要的建模机会，以完善我们对这些行星的理解。最近，来自磁感应机制的预测已经被观测证实，这使得欧姆耗散和磁阻力很可能是热木星半径膨胀现象的原因。作为这个解决方案的主要架构师，我建议领导改进热木星的磁感应模型，这样它就可以作为定量工具来更好地理解这些行星的结构和演化。我还将开展一个项目，旨在澄清热木星大气中湍流垂直输送的作用和规模。总之，这将阐明形成情景，并直接影响我们对这类行星的大气观测的理解。在附近恒星周围寻找类似地球的可居住行星，以进行JWST或elt的后续表征，是当今系外行星科学的关键驱动力。我的团队在类地系外行星上可能存在的气候多样性方面做出了重要贡献，特别是受全球气候周期或宜居雪球状态影响的寒冷宜居世界。我将继续探索可居住气候的丰富参数空间，其主要目标是：提供解释未来发现所需的广泛背景。这将通过一种完善的前向建模策略来实现：对模式气候的模拟观测将用于了解复杂气候系统的哪些方面可以从未来十年或更长时间内天文学家可用的有限观测约束中可靠地推断出来。