Mean opacity tables for probing the interior and atmosphere of giant planets

TL;DR

This paper introduces comprehensive new mean opacity tables for giant planets' atmospheres and interiors, covering a wide parameter space with updated physics, including cloud effects, to improve planetary modeling accuracy.

Contribution

It provides the first publicly available cloudy mean opacity tables and significantly expands the parameter space of existing opacity data for giant planets.

Findings

Significant differences (>100%) in Rosseland mean opacities compared to previous tables at high temperatures.

Large discrepancies in Planck mean opacities, sometimes exceeding two orders of magnitude, due to updated atomic data.

Cloud opacities notably increase Rosseland mean values for temperatures below 2800 K.

Abstract

We present new Rosseland and Planck mean opacity tables relevant to the shallow interiors and atmospheres of giant planets. The tables span metallicities from 0.31 to 50 times solar, temperatures from 100 - 6000 K, and pressures from 1e-6 - 1e5 bar, thereby covering a wider parameter space than previous data sets. Our calculations employ the latest molecular and atomic line lists and pressure-broadening treatments, and include contributions from collision-induced absorption, free electrons, and scattering processes. We further provide cloudy mean opacity tables that account for cloud particle extinction across a range of particle sizes and capture the sequential removal of condensates as the gas cools. We benchmark our cloud-free tables against widely used opacity tables and find significant relative differences, exceeding 100% in Rosseland mean opacities at T \gtrsim 3000 K due to the inclusion of additional short-wavelength absorbers. Differences in Planck mean opacities at high temperatures are even larger, in some cases exceeding two orders of magnitude, which is most likely driven by the inclusion of Ca, Mg, and Fe cross-sections and updated Na D and K I resonance line treatments. Cloud opacities substantially increase Rosseland mean opacities for T \lesssim 2800 K, while their effect on Planck mean opacities is weaker. We also discuss limitations of our mean opacities at high pressures, where non-ideal effects become important. This work provides improved cloud-free mean opacity tables for giant planets, as well as the first publicly available cloudy mean opacity tables, which will enable more realistic modeling of their atmospheres and interiors.