Extending a grid of hydrodynamic planetary upper atmosphere models

TL;DR

This paper extends a grid of hydrodynamic models for planetary upper atmospheres, increasing coverage to include more planetary masses and enabling better analysis of atmospheric escape across different planet types.

Contribution

The authors expanded the existing grid of 1D hydrodynamic models to include more planetary masses and provided an interpolation tool for mass-loss rate estimation.

Findings

Extended the model grid to 10,235 points.

Covered a broader planetary mass range up to 109 Earth masses.

Compared model results with analytical estimates.

Abstract

In this research note, we outline the extension of the grid of upper atmosphere models first presented in Kubyshkina et al. (2018a). The original grid is based on a 1D hydrodynamic model and consists of about 7000 models covering planets of the size from Earth to twice Neptune at orbits corresponding to equilibrium temperatures between 300 and 2000 K around solar-like (0.4 to 1.3 solar mass) stars. The extended and revised grid of models consists of 10235 points and covers a planetary mass range of up to 109 Earth masses, which allows one to outline the transition between low- and high-gravity hot planets in short orbital separations. We prepared the interpolation tool allowing one to use the grid to define the mass-loss of a planet that falls into the parameter range of the grid. We provide a comparison of our results to common analytical models.