The Sparse Atmospheric MOdel Sampling Analysis (SAMOSA) intercomparison: Motivations and protocol version 1.0. A CUISINES model intercomparison project

TL;DR

This paper establishes a protocol for comparing climate models of tidally locked exoplanets, aiming to identify where simple models suffice and where complex GCMs are necessary for accurate predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a standardized intercomparison protocol for diverse climate models of a hypothetical exoplanet, facilitating understanding of model differences across parameter space.

Findings

Preliminary comparison shows general consistency between ExoCAM and ExoPlaSim.

Differences are notable in steam atmosphere and runaway greenhouse regions.

Protocol enables systematic assessment of model capabilities and limitations.

Abstract

Planets in synchronous rotation around low-mass stars are the most salient targets for current ground- and space-based missions to observe and characterize. Such model calculations can help to prioritize targets for observation with current and future missions; however, intrinsic differences in the complexity and physical parameterizations of various models can lead to different predictions of a planet's climate state. Understanding such model differences is necessary if such models are to guide target selection and aid in the analysis of observations. This paper presents a protocol to intercompare models of a hypothetical planet with a 15 day synchronous rotation period around a 3000 K blackbody star across a parameter space of surface pressure and incident instellation. We conduct a sparse sample of 16 cases from a previously published exploration of this parameter space with the ExoPlaSim model. By selecting particular cases across this broad parameter space, the SAMOSA intercomparison will identify areas where simpler models are sufficient as well as areas where more complex GCMs are required. Our preliminary comparison using ExoCAM shows general consistency between the climate state predicted by ExoCAM and ExoPlaSim except in regions of the parameter space most likely to be in a steam atmosphere or incipient runaway greenhouse state. We use this preliminary analysis to define several options for participation in the intercomparison by models of all levels of complexity. The participation of other GCMs is crucial to understand how the atmospheric states across this parameter space differ with model capabilities.