Exonephology: transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b

S. Lines; J. Manners; N. J. Mayne; J. Goyal; A. L. Carter; I. A. Boutle; G. K. H. Lee; Ch Helling; B. Drummond; D. M. Acreman; D. K. Sing

doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2275

Exonephology: transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b

S. Lines^*, J. Manners, N. J. Mayne, J. Goyal, A. L. Carter, I. A. Boutle, G. K. H. Lee, Ch Helling, B. Drummond, D. M. Acreman, D. K. Sing

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We present high-resolution transmission spectra, calculated directly from a 3D radiative hydrodynamic simulation that includes kinetic cloud formation, for HD 209458b. We find that the high opacity of our vertically extensive cloud deck, composed of a large number density of sub-μm particles, flattens the transmission spectrum and obscures spectral features identified in the observed data. We use the PANDEXO simulator to explore features of our HD 209458b spectrum which may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. We determine that an 8-12μm absorption feature attributed to the mixed-composition, predominantly silicate cloud particles is a viable marker for the presence of cloud. Further calculations explore, and trends are identified with, variations in cloud opacity, composition heterogeneity, and artificially scaled gravitational settling on the transmission spectrum. Principally, by varying the upper extent of our cloud decks, rainout is identified to be a key process for the dynamical atmospheres of hot Jupiters and shown to dramatically alter the resulting spectrum. Our synthetic transmission spectra, obtained from the most complete, forward atmosphere simulations to date, allow us to explore the model's ability to conform with observations. Such comparisons can provide insight into the physical processes either missing or requiring improvement.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	194-205
Number of pages	12
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	481
Issue number	1
Early online date	23 Aug 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2275
Publication status	Published - 21 Nov 2018

Keywords

Hydrodynamics
Planets and satellites: atmospheres
Radiative transfer
Scattering -methods: numerical

Access to Document

10.1093/mnras/sty2275

Lines_2018_MNRAS_Exonephology_FinalPubVersion
© 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2275
Final published version, 3.2 MB

Exonephology: Transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD209458b (dataset)
Lines, S. (Creator), Manners, J. (Creator), Mayne, N. J. (Creator), Goyal, J. (Creator), Carter, A. L. (Creator), Boutle, I. A. (Creator), Lee, G. K. H. (Creator), Helling, C. (Creator), Drummond, B. (Creator), Acreman, D. M. (Creator) & Sing, D. K. (Creator), University of Exeter Press, 30 Aug 2018
DOI: 10.24378/exe.645
Dataset

Cite this

@article{4a27b866d8514e769d4beae36b5b5e1f,

title = "Exonephology: transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b",

abstract = "We present high-resolution transmission spectra, calculated directly from a 3D radiative hydrodynamic simulation that includes kinetic cloud formation, for HD 209458b. We find that the high opacity of our vertically extensive cloud deck, composed of a large number density of sub-μm particles, flattens the transmission spectrum and obscures spectral features identified in the observed data. We use the PANDEXO simulator to explore features of our HD 209458b spectrum which may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. We determine that an 8-12μm absorption feature attributed to the mixed-composition, predominantly silicate cloud particles is a viable marker for the presence of cloud. Further calculations explore, and trends are identified with, variations in cloud opacity, composition heterogeneity, and artificially scaled gravitational settling on the transmission spectrum. Principally, by varying the upper extent of our cloud decks, rainout is identified to be a key process for the dynamical atmospheres of hot Jupiters and shown to dramatically alter the resulting spectrum. Our synthetic transmission spectra, obtained from the most complete, forward atmosphere simulations to date, allow us to explore the model's ability to conform with observations. Such comparisons can provide insight into the physical processes either missing or requiring improvement.",

keywords = "Hydrodynamics, Planets and satellites: atmospheres, Radiative transfer, Scattering -methods: numerical",

author = "S. Lines and J. Manners and Mayne, {N. J.} and J. Goyal and Carter, {A. L.} and Boutle, {I. A.} and Lee, {G. K. H.} and Ch Helling and B. Drummond and Acreman, {D. M.} and Sing, {D. K.}",

note = "S. Lines and J. Goyal are funded by and thankful to the Leverhulme Trust. N. J. Mayne is part funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant. J. Manners and I. A. Boutle acknowledge the support of a Met Office Academic Partnership secondment. B. Drummond acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 336792. G. K. H. Lee acknowledges support from the Universities of Oxford and Bern through the Bernoulli fellowship program. A. L. Carter is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship.",

year = "2018",

month = nov,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1093/mnras/sty2275",

language = "English",

volume = "481",

pages = "194--205",

journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society",

issn = "0035-8711",

publisher = "Oxford University Press",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exonephology

T2 - transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b

AU - Lines, S.

AU - Manners, J.

AU - Mayne, N. J.

AU - Goyal, J.

AU - Carter, A. L.

AU - Boutle, I. A.

AU - Lee, G. K. H.

AU - Helling, Ch

AU - Drummond, B.

AU - Acreman, D. M.

AU - Sing, D. K.

N1 - S. Lines and J. Goyal are funded by and thankful to the Leverhulme Trust. N. J. Mayne is part funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant. J. Manners and I. A. Boutle acknowledge the support of a Met Office Academic Partnership secondment. B. Drummond acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 336792. G. K. H. Lee acknowledges support from the Universities of Oxford and Bern through the Bernoulli fellowship program. A. L. Carter is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship.

PY - 2018/11/21

Y1 - 2018/11/21

N2 - We present high-resolution transmission spectra, calculated directly from a 3D radiative hydrodynamic simulation that includes kinetic cloud formation, for HD 209458b. We find that the high opacity of our vertically extensive cloud deck, composed of a large number density of sub-μm particles, flattens the transmission spectrum and obscures spectral features identified in the observed data. We use the PANDEXO simulator to explore features of our HD 209458b spectrum which may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. We determine that an 8-12μm absorption feature attributed to the mixed-composition, predominantly silicate cloud particles is a viable marker for the presence of cloud. Further calculations explore, and trends are identified with, variations in cloud opacity, composition heterogeneity, and artificially scaled gravitational settling on the transmission spectrum. Principally, by varying the upper extent of our cloud decks, rainout is identified to be a key process for the dynamical atmospheres of hot Jupiters and shown to dramatically alter the resulting spectrum. Our synthetic transmission spectra, obtained from the most complete, forward atmosphere simulations to date, allow us to explore the model's ability to conform with observations. Such comparisons can provide insight into the physical processes either missing or requiring improvement.

AB - We present high-resolution transmission spectra, calculated directly from a 3D radiative hydrodynamic simulation that includes kinetic cloud formation, for HD 209458b. We find that the high opacity of our vertically extensive cloud deck, composed of a large number density of sub-μm particles, flattens the transmission spectrum and obscures spectral features identified in the observed data. We use the PANDEXO simulator to explore features of our HD 209458b spectrum which may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. We determine that an 8-12μm absorption feature attributed to the mixed-composition, predominantly silicate cloud particles is a viable marker for the presence of cloud. Further calculations explore, and trends are identified with, variations in cloud opacity, composition heterogeneity, and artificially scaled gravitational settling on the transmission spectrum. Principally, by varying the upper extent of our cloud decks, rainout is identified to be a key process for the dynamical atmospheres of hot Jupiters and shown to dramatically alter the resulting spectrum. Our synthetic transmission spectra, obtained from the most complete, forward atmosphere simulations to date, allow us to explore the model's ability to conform with observations. Such comparisons can provide insight into the physical processes either missing or requiring improvement.

KW - Hydrodynamics

KW - Planets and satellites: atmospheres

KW - Radiative transfer

KW - Scattering -methods: numerical

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/sty2275

DO - 10.1093/mnras/sty2275

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85054095751

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 481

SP - 194

EP - 205

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

IS - 1

ER -

Exonephology: transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD 209458b

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Datasets

Exonephology: Transmission spectra from a 3D simulated cloudy atmosphere of HD209458b (dataset)

Cite this