THE OBSERVABLE LAYERS OF THE ATMOSPHERES OF THE GAS AND ICE GIANTS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM ARE STABLE TO CONVECTION AND ARE HOST TO INTERNAL GRAVITY WAVES. THESE WAVES WHICH TRANSPORT BOTH ENERGY AND CHEMICAL SPECIES ARE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE OBSERVED PROPERTIES OF SOLAR SYSTEM GIANT PLANETS. ENERGY TRANSPORT BY INTERNAL GRAVITY WAVES CONTRIBUTES TO THE HEATING OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERES OF GIANT PLANETS WHICH CHEMICAL TRANSPORT CONTRIBUTES TO THE OBSERVED DISEQUILIBRIUM ABUNDANCES OF PHOTOCHEMICAL PRODUCTS IN THOSE ATMOSPHERES. WE PROPOSE A COMPUTATIONAL INVESTIGATION OF CONVECTIVELY-DRIVEN INTERNAL GRAVITY WAVES AND THEIR NONLINEAR TRANSPORT PROCESSES USING THE OPEN-SOURCE MASSIVELY-PARALLEL DEDALUS PSEUDOSPECTRAL FRAMEWORK. WE WILL STUDY HOW INTERNAL GRAVITY WAVES ARE DRIVEN BY CONVECTION HOW THOSE WAVES NONLINEARLY TRANSPORT ENERGY AND CHEMICAL SPECIES AND WE WILL APPLY REDUCED MODELS OF WAVE-MEDIATED TRANSPORT TO OBSERVATIONAL PUZZLES RAISED BY OBSERVATIONS OF SOLAR SYSTEM GIANT PLANETS. THESE RESULTS WILL BE RELEVANT TO ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION EFFORTS BY THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) FOR ALL OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM GIANT PLANETS AND TO FUTURE NASA MISSIONS TO THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM.
$495,067FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
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