Examining Tatooine: Atmospheric Models of Neptune-Like Circumbinary Planets

TL;DR

This study investigates the atmospheric effects of the variable irradiation on Neptune-like circumbinary planets using advanced climate models, finding minimal temperature differences compared to single-star planets, simplifying future atmospheric modeling.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of atmospheric responses of circumbinary planets using both 1D and 3D models, demonstrating they can be approximated as single-star systems.

Findings

Temperature differences are typically less than 1%.

Circulation patterns are not significantly affected.

Simplifies future atmospheric modeling of circumbinary planets.

Abstract

Circumbinary planets experience a time varying irradiation pattern as they orbit their two host stars. In this work, we present the first detailed study of the atmospheric effects of this irradiation pattern on known and hypothetical gaseous circumbinary planets. Using both a one-dimensional Energy Balance Model and a three-dimensional General Circulation Model, we look at the temperature differences between circumbinary planets and their equivalent single-star cases in order to determine the nature of the atmospheres of these planets. We find that for circumbinary planets on stable orbits around their host stars, temperature differences are on average no more than 1.0% in the most extreme cases. Based on detailed modeling with the General Circulation Model, we find that these temperature differences are not large enough to excite circulation differences between the two cases. We conclude that gaseous circumbinary planets can be treated as their equivalent single-star case in future atmospheric modeling efforts.