The Effect of Interior Heat Flux on the Atmospheric Circulation of Hot and Ultra-hot Jupiters

Journal article

Many hot and ultra-hot Jupiters have inflated radii, implying that their interiors retain significant entropy from formation. These hot interiors lead to an enhanced internal heat flux that impinges upon the atmosphere from below. In this work, we study the effect of this hot interior on the atmospheric circulation and thermal structure of hot and ultra-hot Jupiters. To do so, we incorporate the population-level predictions from evolutionary models of hot and ultra-hot Jupiters as input for a suite of General Circulation Models (GCMs) of their atmospheric circulation with varying semi-major axis and surface gravity. We conduct simulations with and without a hot interior, and find that there are significant local differences in temperature of up to hundreds of Kelvin and in wind speeds of hundreds of m s$^{-1}$ or more across the observable atmosphere. These differences persist throughout the parameter regime studied, and are dependent on surface gravity through the impact on photosphere pressure. These results imply that the internal evolution and atmospheric thermal structure and dynamics of hot and ultra-hot Jupiters are coupled. As a result, a joint approach including both evolutionary models and GCMs may be required to make robust predictions for the atmospheric circulation of hot and ultra-hot Jupiters.Comment: Accepted at ApJL, 17 pages, 8 figure

Authors: Komacek, TD; Gao, P; Thorngren, DP; May, EM; Tan, X

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
• Volume: 941
• Issue: 2
• Pages: L40-L40
• Publication date: 2022-12-23
• DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aca975
• EISSN: 2041-8213
• ISSN: 2041-8205
• Language: English
• Keywords: Planet; Heat flux; Thermal; Meteorology; Hot Jupiter; Atmospheric circulation; Atmospheric model; Physics; Population; Atmosphere (unit); Mechanics; Heat transfer; Exoplanet; Atmospheric sciences; Environmental science; Astrophysics