Leveraging Models to Constrain the Climates of Rocky Exoplanets

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in modeling and observing rocky exoplanet climates, highlighting how adapted Earth models and upcoming data can improve understanding of their habitability.

Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge on exoplanet climate modeling, observational constraints, and future prospects for understanding rocky exoplanet habitability.

Findings

Models adapted from Earth help interpret exoplanet climates.

Upcoming observations will refine climate constraints.

Understanding of atmospheric and oceanic processes is advancing.

Abstract

In recent years, numerical models that were developed for Earth have been adapted to study exoplanetary climates to understand how the broad range of possible exoplanetary properties affects their climate state. The recent discovery and upcoming characterization of nearby rocky exoplanets opens an avenue toward understanding the processes that shape planetary climates and lead to the persistent habitability of Earth. In this review, we summarize recent advances in understanding the climate of rocky exoplanets, including their atmospheric structure, chemistry, evolution, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. We describe current and upcoming astronomical observations that will constrain the climate of rocky exoplanets and describe how modeling tools will both inform and interpret future observations.