Sainsbury-Martinez, F. orcid.org/0000-0003-0304-7931, Tremblin, P. orcid.org/0000-0001-6172-3403, Schneider, A.D. orcid.org/0000-0002-1448-0303 et al. (6 more authors) (Cover date: September 2023) Evidence of radius inflation in radiative GCM models of WASP-76b due to the advection of potential temperature. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 524 (1). pp. 1316-1325. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Understanding the discrepancy between the radii of observed hot Jupiters and standard ‘radiative-convective’ models remains a hotly debated topic in the exoplanet community. One mechanism which has been proposed to bridge this gap, and which has recently come under scrutiny, is the vertical advection of potential temperature from the irradiated outer atmosphere deep into the interior, heating the deep unirradiated atmosphere, warming the internal adiabat, and resulting in radius inflation. Specifically, a recent study which explored the atmosphere of WASP-76b using a 3D non-grey GCM suggested that their models lacked radius inflation, and hence any vertical enthalpy advection. Here we perform additional analysis of these, and related models, focusing on an explicit analysis of vertical enthalpy transport and the resulting heating of the deep atmosphere compared with 1D models. Our results indicate that, after any evolution linked with initialization, all the WASP-76b models considered here exhibit significant vertical enthalpy transport, heating the deep atmosphere significantly when compared with standard 1D models. Furthermore, comparison of a long time-scale (and hence near steady-state) model with a Jupiter-like internal-structure model suggests not only strong radius-inflation, but also that the model radius, 1.98 RJ, may be comparable with observations (1.83 ± 0.06 RJ). We thus conclude that the vertical advection of potential temperature alone is enough to explain the radius inflation of WASP-76b, and potentially other irradiated gas giants, albeit with the proviso that the exact strength of the vertical advection remains sensitive to model parameters, such as the inclusion of deep atmospheric drag.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Radiation: dynamics, Radiative transfer, Planets and satellites: atmospheres, Planets and satellites: gaseous planets |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Jul 2023 09:23 |
Last Modified: | 14 Jul 2023 09:23 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stad1905 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201486 |