Atmospheric circulation of eccentric hot Jupiter HAT-P-2B

Journal Article · Mon Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/795/2/150· OSTI ID:22370232

Lewis, Nikole K. ^[1]; Showman, Adam P. ^[2]; Fortney, Jonathan J. ^[3]; Knutson, Heather A. ^[4]

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1. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
2. Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
4. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

The hot Jupiter HAT-P-2b has become a prime target for Spitzer Space Telescope observations aimed at understanding the atmospheric response of exoplanets on highly eccentric orbits. Here we present a suite of three-dimensional atmospheric circulation models for HAT-P-2b that investigate the effects of assumed atmospheric composition and rotation rate on global scale winds and thermal patterns. We compare and contrast atmospheric models for HAT-P-2b, which assume one and five times solar metallicity, both with and without TiO/VO as atmospheric constituents. Additionally we compare models that assume a rotation period of half, one, and two times the nominal pseudo-synchronous rotation period. We find that changes in assumed atmospheric metallicity and rotation rate do not significantly affect model predictions of the planetary flux as a function of orbital phase. However, models in which TiO/VO are present in the atmosphere develop a transient temperature inversion between the transit and secondary eclipse events that results in significant variations in the timing and magnitude of the peak of the planetary flux compared with models in which TiO/VO are omitted from the opacity tables. We find that no one single atmospheric model can reproduce the recently observed full orbit phase curves at 3.6, 4.5 and 8.0 μm, which is likely due to a chemical process not captured by our current atmospheric models for HAT-P-2b. Further modeling and observational efforts focused on understanding the chemistry of HAT-P-2b's atmosphere are needed and could provide key insights into the interplay between radiative, dynamical, and chemical processes in a wide range of exoplanet atmospheres.

• OSTI ID: 22370232
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 795, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
CAPTURE
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ECLIPSE
FORECASTING
METALLICITY
OPACITY
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
ROTATION
SATELLITES
SIMULATION
SPACE
TELESCOPES
TEMPERATURE INVERSIONS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TITANIUM OXIDES
TRANSIENTS
VANADIUM OXIDES