Simulating Non-hydrostatic atmospheres on Planets (SNAP): formulation, validation and application to the Jovian atmosphere

Abstract

A new non-hydrostatic and cloud-resolving atmospheric model is developed for studying moist convection and cloud formation in planetary atmospheres. It is built on top of the Athena++ framework, utilizing its static/adaptive mesh-refinement, parallelization, curvilinear geometry, and dynamic task scheduling. We extend the original hydrodynamic solver to vapors, clouds, and precipitation. Microphysics is formulated generically so that it can be applied to both Earth and Jovian planets. We implemented the Low Mach number Approximate Riemann Solver (LMARS) for simulating low speed atmospheric flows in addition to the usual Roe and HLLC Riemann solvers. Coupled with a fifth-order Weighted Essentially Nonoscillatory (WENO) subgrid-reconstruction method, the sharpness of critical fields such as clouds is well-preserved, and no extra hyperviscosity or spatial filter is needed to stabilize the model. Unlike many atmospheric models, total energy is used as the prognostic variable of the thermodynamic equation. One significant advantage of using total energy as a prognostic variable is that the entropy production due to irreversible mixing process can be properly captured. The model is designed to provide a unified framework for exploring planetary atmospheres across various conditions, both terrestrial and Jovian. First, a series of standard numerical tests for Earth's atmosphere is carried out to demonstrate the performance and robustness of the new model. Second, simulation of an idealized Jovian atmosphere in radiative-convective equilibrium shows that 1) the temperature gradient is superadiabatic near the water condensation level because of the changing of the mean molecular weight, and 2) the mean profile of ammonia gas shows a depletion in the subcloud layer down to nearly 10 bars. Relevance to the recent Juno observations is discussed.

35 pagers, 11 figures, accepted to ApJS

References in corpus (15)

• A continuum from clear to cloudy hot-Jupiter exoplanets without primordial water depletion
• Athena: A New Code for Astrophysical MHD
• Precipitating Condensation Clouds in Substellar Atmospheres
• Neglected Clouds in T and Y Dwarf Atmospheres
• Constraints on Deep-seated Zonal Winds Inside Jupiter and Saturn
• An Extension of the Athena++ Code Framework for GRMHD Based on Advanced Riemann Solvers and Staggered-Mesh Constrained Transport
• A global cloud map of the nearest known brown dwarf
• Formation of Jets and Equatorial Superrotation on Jupiter
• Condensation-inhibited convection in hydrogen-rich atmospheres: Stability against double-diffusive processes and thermal profiles for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
• Generation of equatorial jets by large-scale latent heating on the giant planets
• Global-mean Vertical Tracer Mixing in Planetary Atmospheres I: Theory and Fast-rotating Planets
• Global-mean Vertical Tracer Mixing in Planetary Atmospheres II: Tidally Locked Planets
• Dynamics of atmospheres with a non-dilute condensible component
• Moist adiabats with multiple condensing species: A new theory with application to giant planet atmospheres
• Global or Local Pure-Condensible Atmospheres: Importance of Horizontal Latent Heat Transport

Cited by in corpus (21)

• The water abundance in Jupiter's equatorial zone
• Aerosols in Exoplanet Atmospheres
• Atmospheric Regimes and Trends on Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs
• How well do we understand the belt/zone circulation of Giant Planet atmospheres?
• Disk Formation in Magnetized Dense Cores with Turbulence and Ambipolar Diffusion
• Jupiter's Temperate Belt/Zone Contrasts Revealed at Depth by Juno Microwave Observations
• Storms and the Depletion of Ammonia in Jupiter: II. Explaining the Juno Observations
• The Physics of Falling Raindrops in Diverse Planetary Atmospheres
• Atmospheric Recyling of Volatiles by Pebble-Accreting Planets
• Super-adiabatic Temperature Gradient at Jupiter's Equatorial Zone and Implications for the Water Abundance
• Uranus and Neptune are key to understand planets with hydrogen atmospheres
• Convective storms and atmospheric vertical structure in Uranus and Neptune
• A Global Non-Hydrostatic Atmospheric Model with a Mass and Energy Conserving Vertically-Implicit-Correction (VIC) Scheme
• EPIC Simulations of Neptune's Dark Spots Using an Active Cloud Microphysical Model
• Lightning generation in moist convective clouds and constraints on the water abundance in Jupiter
• Unstructured Grid Dynamical Modeling of Planetary Atmospheres using planetMPAS: The Influence of the Rigid Lid, Computational Efficiency, and Examples of Martian and Jovian Application
• Idealized 2D Cloud-Resolving Simulations for Tidally Locked Habitable Planets
• Rainy downdrafts in abyssal atmospheres
• Storms and convection on Uranus and Neptune: impact of methane abundance revealed by a 3D cloud-resolving model
• Wind shear and the role of eddy vapor transport in driving water convection on Jupiter
• Nonuniform Water Distribution in Jupiter's Mid Latitudes: Influence of Precipitation and Planetary Rotation