Atmospheric stability and collapse on tidally locked rocky planets
arXiv:2004.07134 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202037513
Abstract
Over large timescales, a terrestrial planet may be driven towards spin-orbit synchronous rotation by tidal forces. In this particular configuration, the planet exhibits permanent dayside and nightside, which may induce strong day-night temperature gradients. The nightside temperature depends on the efficiency of the day-night heat redistribution and determines the stability of the atmosphere against collapse. To better constrain the atmospheric stability, climate, and surface conditions of rocky planets located in the habitable zone of their host star, it is thus crucial to understand the complex mechanism of heat redistribution. Building on early works and assuming dry thermodynamics, we developed a hierarchy of analytic models taking into account the coupling between radiative transfer, dayside convection, and large-scale atmospheric circulation in the case of slowly rotating planets. There are two types of these models: a zero-dimensional two-layer approach and a two-column radiative-convective-subsiding-upwelling (RCSU) model. They yield analytical solutions and scaling laws characterising the dependence of the collapse pressure on physical features, which are compared to the results obtained by early works using 3D global climate models (GCMs). The analytical theory captures (i) the dependence of temperatures on atmospheric opacities and scattering in the shortwave and in the longwave, (ii) the behaviour of the collapse pressure observed in GCM simulations at low stellar fluxes that are due to the non-linear dependence of the atmospheric opacity on the longwave optical depth at the planet's surface, (iii) the increase of stability generated by dayside sensible heating, and (iv) the decrease of stability induced by the increase of the planet size.
arXiv comment27 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics
References in corpus (44)
- Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: New Estimates
- Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
- CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2014
- The Keck Planet Search: Detectability and the Minimum Mass and Orbital Period Distribution of Extrasolar Planets
- Atmospheric Circulation and Tides of "51Peg b-like" Planets
- On the radiative equilibrium of irradiated planetary atmospheres
- Extrasolar planet population synthesis I: Method, formation tracks and mass-distance distribution
- Equatorial superrotation on tidally locked exoplanets
- The nature of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets
- A Revised Exoplanet Yield from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
- Discovery and Characterization of Transiting SuperEarths Using an All-Sky Transit Survey and Follow-up by the James Webb Space Telescope
- 3D climate modeling of close-in land planets: Circulation patterns, climate moist bistability and habitability
- Atmospheric circulation of tidally locked exoplanets: a suite of benchmark tests for dynamical solvers
- A decreased probability of habitable planet formation around low-mass stars
- Assessing the Habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 System Using a 3D Climate Model
- Habitable Moist Atmospheres On Terrestrial Planets Near the Inner Edge Of the Habitable Zone Around M-dwarfs
- Modelling climate diversity, tidal dynamics and the fate of volatiles on TRAPPIST-1 planets
- Atmospheric Heat Redistribution on Hot Jupiters
- Atmospheric dynamics of Earth-like tidally locked aquaplanets
- Observed Properties of Extrasolar Planets
- The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Two temperate Earth-mass planet candidates around Teegarden's Star
- A non-grey analytical model for irradiated atmospheres. I: Derivation
- A Model for Thermal Phase Variations of Circular and Eccentric Exoplanets
- Is Gliese 581d habitable? Some constraints from radiative-convective climate modeling
- Tides and the Evolution of Planetary Habitability
- Atmospheric circulation of tidally locked exoplanets: II. Dual-band radiative transfer and convective adjustment
- Thermal phase curves of nontransiting terrestrial exoplanets 1. Characterizing atmospheres
- The potential for Earth-mass planet formation around brown dwarfs
- An Analytic Radiative-Convective Model for Planetary Atmospheres
- Deformation and tidal evolution of close-in planets and satellites using a Maxwell viscoelastic rheology
- Analytical Models of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. II. Radiative Transfer via the Two-stream Approximation
- Gliese 581g as a scaled-up version of Earth: atmospheric circulation simulations
- Temperature Structure and Atmospheric Circulation of Dry, Tidally Locked Rocky Exoplanets
- Deciphering thermal phase curves of dry, tidally locked terrestrial planets
- Effects of Initial Flow on Close-In Planet Atmospheric Circulation
- On the effects of clouds and hazes in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters: semi-analytical temperature-pressure profiles
- On the Stability of Super-Earth Atmospheres
- On the Method to Infer an Atmosphere on a Tidally-Locked Super Earth Exoplanet and Upper limits to GJ 876d
- THOR: A New and Flexible Global Circulation Model to Explore Planetary Atmospheres
- Atmospheric Circulations of Hot Jupiters as Planetary Heat Engines
- Formation of solar system analogs I: looking for initial conditions through a population synthesis analysis
- Connecting the dots III: Night side cooling and surface friction affect climates of tidally locked terrestrial planets
- Analytical Models of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. V. Non-gray Thermal Structure with Coherent Scattering
- Collapse of the general circulation in shortwave-absorbing atmospheres: an idealized model study
Cited by in corpus (11)
- Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets
- A review of possible planetary atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system
- Super-Earths and Earth-like Exoplanets
- Atmospheric Dynamics of a Near Tidally Locked Earth-Size Planet
- Eta-Earth Revisited II: Deriving a Maximum Number of Earth-like Habitats in the Galactic Disk
- Formulation and Resolutions of the Red Sky Paradox
- Meta-modelling the climate of dry tide locked rocky planets
- On the behaviour of spin-orbit connection of exoplanets
- Hot Rocks Survey V: Secondary Eclipse Photometry of GJ 3473 b with JWST/MIRI
- An Evolving Cosmic Shoreline and Sandbar Bounding the Rocky Airless Valley
- Retention of surface water on tidally locked rocky planets in the Venus zone around M dwarfs