Climates of terrestrial exoplanets with 3D GCM
speaker: Takanori Kodama
Abstract:
Many exoplanets have been detected since 1995. Some of them are expected to be rocky planets with Earth-like bulk composition within the habitable zone, which is defined as the region around the central star where liquid water on the planetary surface remains stable for a long term. New space telescope observations are planned to reveal the characteristics of the atmosphere of exoplanets. In the next decade, such potential habitable exoplanets will be the primary targets for observation of life on exoplanets. Classically, the planetary atmosphere has been investigated with 1D radiative-convective equilibrium model. Recently, the climate for exoplanets in the habitable zone has been estimated with 3D general circulation models (GCMs) to capture the non-uniformity.
In this talk, I will review the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets from the viewpoint of 1D and 3D climate models. And I will show our recent studies where we focus on the distribution of water on the surface and in the atmosphere. We found that habitability is strongly depended on the surface environment. Finally, I will introduce an application with NICAM(Non-hydrostatic ICOsahedral Atmospheric Model), known as a global cloud resolved model, and will discuss the difference between a classical GCM and a global cloud resolved model.