On Signatures of Atmospheric Features in Thermal Phase Curves of Hot Jupiters

Abstract

Turbulence is ubiquitous in Solar System planetary atmospheres. In hot Jupiter atmospheres, the combination of moderately slow rotation and thick pressure scale height may result in dynamical weather structures with unusually large, planetary-size scales. Using equivalent-barotropic, turbulent circulation models, we illustrate how such structures can generate a variety of features in the thermal phase curves of hot Jupiters, including phase shifts and deviations from periodicity. Such features may have been spotted in the recent infrared phase curve of HD 189733b. Despite inherent difficulties with the interpretation of disk-integrated quantities, phase curves promise to offer unique constraints on the nature of the circulation regime present on hot Jupiters.

arXiv comment22 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (32)

• A Unified Theory for the Atmospheres of the Hot and Very Hot Jupiters: Two Classes of Irradiated Atmospheres
• A map of the day-night contrast of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b
• Detection of Thermal Emission from an Extrasolar Planet
• Atmospheric Circulation and Tides of "51Peg b-like" Planets
• Infrared radiation from an extrasolar planet
• Detection of atmospheric haze on an extrasolar planet: The 0.55 - 1.05 micron transmission spectrum of HD189733b with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Sodium Absorption From the Exoplanetary Atmosphere of HD189733b Detected in the Optical Transmission Spectrum
• Theoretical Spectra and Light Curves of Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets and Comparison with Data
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Day-Night Circulation Patterns of HD 189733b
• The phase-dependent Infrared brightness of the extrasolar planet upsilon Andromedae b
• Dynamics and Disequilibrium Carbon Chemistry in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres, With Application to HD 209458b
• Strong Infrared Emission from the Extrasolar Planet HD189733b
• A Spectrum of an Extrasolar Planet
• Dynamic Meteorology at the Photosphere of HD 209458b
• Changing Face of the Extrasolar Giant Planet, HD 209458b
• Spitzer Transit and Secondary Eclipse Photometry of GJ 436b
• A Spitzer Spectrum of the Exoplanet HD 189733b
• The Influence of Atmospheric Dynamics on the Infrared Spectra and Light Curves of Hot Jupiters
• Identification of Absorption Features in an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere
• Atmospheric Dynamics of Short-period Extra Solar Gas Giant Planets I: Dependence of Night-Side Temperature on Opacity
• Hot Nights on Extrasolar Planets: Mid-IR Phase Variations of Hot Jupiters
• On the Dayside Thermal Emission of Hot Jupiters
• Two Classes of Hot Jupiters
• Resolving the Surfaces of Extrasolar Planets With Secondary Eclipse Light Curves
• MOST detects variability on tau Bootis possibly induced by its planetary companion
• Toward Eclipse Mapping of Hot Jupiters
• Analysis of Spitzer Spectra of Irradiated Planets: Evidence for Water Vapor?
• Hot Jupiter Variability in Eclipse Depth
• "Weather" Variability Of Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets
• Observational Consequences of Hydrodynamic Flows on Hot Jupiters
• Atmospheric Circulation of Hot Jupiters: A Review of Current Understanding
• Observations of Extrasolar Planets During the non-Cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope Mission

Cited by in corpus (26)

• The climate of HD 189733b from fourteen transits and eclipses measured by Spitzer
• Strong Water Absorption in the Dayside Emission Spectrum of the Planet HD 189733b
• Water, Methane, and Carbon Dioxide Present in the Dayside Spectrum of the Exoplanet HD 209458b
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Day-Night Circulation Patterns of HD 189733b
• The physical properties of extrasolar planets
• Atmospheric Circulation of Hot Jupiters: A Shallow Three-Dimensional Model
• Pseudo 2D chemical model of hot Jupiter atmospheres: application to HD 209458b and HD 189733b
• Exoplanet albedo spectra and colors as a function of planet phase, separation, and metallicity
• Three Dimensional Radiative Hydrodynamical Simulations of the Highly Irradiated Short Period Exoplanet HD189733b
• The 8 Micron Phase Variation of the Hot Saturn HD 149026b
• A New 24 micron Phase Curve for upsilon Andromedae b
• A Model for Thermal Phase Variations of Circular and Eccentric Exoplanets
• Photometric and Spectral Signatures of 3D Models of Transiting Giant Exoplanets
• Variability in the Atmosphere of the Hot Giant Planet HAT-P-7 b
• Radiative Hydrodynamic Simulations of HD209458b: Temporal Variability
• Atmospheric Circulation of Exoplanets
• Spitzer/MIPS 24 micron Observations of HD 209458b: 3 eclipses, 2.5 transits, and a Phase Curve Corrupted by Instrumental Sensitivity Variations
• Near-infrared Thermal Emission Detections of a number of hot Jupiters and the Systematics of Ground-based Near-infrared Photometry
• The Atmospheric Circulation and Observable Properties of Non-Synchronously Rotating Hot Jupiters
• The Impact of Circumplantary Jets on Transit Spectra and Timing Offsets for Hot-Jupiters
• The EChO science case
• A Lack of Variability Between Repeated Spitzer Phase Curves of WASP-43b
• An investigation of a super-Earth exoplanet with a greenhouse-gas atmosphere using a general circulation model
• Supervised Learning Detection of Sixty Non-Transiting Hot Jupiter Candidates
• Potential Interior Structures and Habitability of Super-Earth Exoplanets LHS 1140 b, K2-18 b, TOI-1452 b and TOI-1468 c
• A New Atmospheric Model for HD 189733 b