On Signatures of Atmospheric Features in Thermal Phase Curves of Hot Jupiters

TL;DR

This paper explores how turbulent atmospheric structures in hot Jupiters influence their thermal phase curves, revealing features like phase shifts that can inform us about their circulation regimes.

Contribution

It demonstrates through models that large-scale turbulence in hot Jupiter atmospheres can produce observable signatures in thermal phase curves, aiding interpretation of observational data.

Findings

Turbulence can cause phase shifts in thermal curves.

Large-scale weather structures influence phase curve deviations.

Phase curves can constrain atmospheric circulation regimes.

Abstract

Turbulence is ubiquitous in Solar System planetary atmospheres. In hot Jupiter atmospheres, the combination of moderately slow rotation and thick pressure scale height may result in dynamical weather structures with unusually large, planetary-size scales. Using equivalent-barotropic, turbulent circulation models, we illustrate how such structures can generate a variety of features in the thermal phase curves of hot Jupiters, including phase shifts and deviations from periodicity. Such features may have been spotted in the recent infrared phase curve of HD 189733b. Despite inherent difficulties with the interpretation of disk-integrated quantities, phase curves promise to offer unique constraints on the nature of the circulation regime present on hot Jupiters.