Into the Storm: Diving into the winds of the ultra hot Jupiter WASP-76 b with HARPS and ESPRESSO
J. V. Seidel, D. Ehrenreich, A. Allart, H. J. Hoeijmakers, C. Lovis,, V. Bourrier, L. Pino, A. Wyttenbach, V. Adibekyan, Y. Alibert, F. Borsa, N., Casasayas-Barris, S. Cristiani, O. D. S. Demangeon, P. Di Marcantonio, P., Figueira, J. I. Gonz\'alez Hern\'andez, J. Lillo-Box

TL;DR
This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy to analyze the atmospheric dynamics of ultra hot Jupiter WASP-76 b, revealing wind patterns and temperature structure, and demonstrating the potential of spectral line shape analysis for atmospheric characterization.
Contribution
It introduces an updated MERC code with planetary rotation and latitude-dependent wind modeling, providing new insights into the vertical and horizontal wind patterns of WASP-76 b.
Findings
Isothermal atmosphere with mean temperature ~3389 K
Uniform day-to-night wind of ~5.5 km/s in lower atmosphere
Vertical wind of ~22.7 km/s in upper atmosphere
Abstract
Despite swift progress in the characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres in composition and structure, the study of atmospheric dynamics has not progressed at the same speed. While theoretical models have been developed to describe the lower layers of the atmosphere and, disconnected, the exosphere, little is known about the intermediate layers up to the thermosphere. We aim to provide a clearer picture of atmospheric dynamics for the class of ultra hot Jupiters, highly-irradiated gas giants, on the example of WASP-76~b. We analysed two datasets jointly, obtained with the HARPS and ESPRESSO spectrographs, to interpret the resolved planetary sodium doublet. We then applied an updated version of the MERC code, with added planetary rotation, also provides the possibility to model the latitude dependence of the wind patterns. We retrieve the highest Bayesian evidence for an isothermal…
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