Unveiling the Cloudy Dynamics in Hydrogen-dominated Atmospheres from Giant Planets to Brown Dwarfs

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

A team led by the University of California-Santa Cruz will explore clouds and their impacts upon atmospheres of giant planets and brown dwarfs. The project will simulate the cloudy dynamics on the four Solar System giant planets as well as brown dwarfs and giant plants orbiting distant stars. The program will aim to understand the physics of temperature, chemical mixing, and patchiness from cold to hot hydrogen-dominated planet atmospheres. Atmosphere models will be open source for the science community. This work will stimulate cross-disciplinary activity between Solar System and galactic scientists. The simulated clouds and storms on giant planets and brown dwarfs from this research will enhance current graduate and undergraduate classes. Clouds provide one of the biggest challenges for interpreting observations of planets. The solution provided here can help solve some long-standing questions. Previously neglected convective inhibition effects could be an essential mechanism for understanding how giant planets and brown dwarf works. This program will explore cloud formation and cloud dynamics on giant planets and brown dwarfs from 100 K to 2000 K in a self-consistent and systematic fashion. The project will simulate the cloudy dynamics on four Solar System giant planets, including CH4, H2S, NH3, [NH4]SH, and H2O clouds, and the dependence of the atmospheric metallicity, investigating the role of clouds on temperature and vertical mixing. The team will also simulate the cloudy dynamics on directly imaged exoplanets and brown dwarfs and their impact upon data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope. A better characterization of dynamics and tracer transport will constrain the abundance of heavy cosmic elements deep within atmospheres, which are crucial to constrain the formation and evolution of the planets and brown dwarfs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.