Impact of variations of gravitational acceleration on the general circulation of the planetary atmosphere

Kilic, Cevahir; Raible, Christoph C.; Stocker, Thomas F.; Kirk, Edilbert

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2016.11.001

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…For example, Rayleigh and Mie scatterings depend on the number of molecules and the inherent properties of molecules (such as N 2 vs. CO 2 ), the strength of pressure broadening depends on air mass and planetary gravity, and the molecular weight compared to H 2 O can strongly influence the strength of buoyancy for convection. Previous studies had examined the effect of varying planetary gravity on radiation transfer, surface temperature, and atmospheric dynamics (such as H. Yang & Yang, 2019; H. Yang et al., 2019; Kaspi & Showman, 2015; Kilic et al., 2017; Pierrehumbert, 2010; Thomson & Vallis, 2019), but no work has explored its effect on surface precipitation. Moreover, another important process related to precipitation strength is shortwave absorption, which is strongly influenced by water vapor concentration, clouds, and stellar spectrum.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smaller Sensitivity of Precipitation to Surface Temperature Under Massive Atmospheres

Xiong

Yang

Liu

2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Precipitation and its response to forcing is an important aspect of planetary climate system. In this study, we examine the strength of precipitation in the experiments with different atmospheric masses and their response to surface warming, using three global atmospheric general circulation models and one regional cloud‐resolving model. We find that precipitation is weaker when atmospheric mass is larger for a given surface temperature. Furthermore, the increasing rate of precipitation with increasing surface temperature under a larger atmospheric mass is smaller than that under a smaller atmospheric mass. These behaviors can be understood based on atmospheric or surface energy balance. Atmospheric mass influences Rayleigh scattering, multiple scattering in the atmosphere, pressure broadening, lapse rate, and thereby precipitation strength. These results have important implications on the climate and habitability of early Earth, early Mars, and exoplanets with oceans.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smaller Sensitivity of Precipitation to Surface Temperature Under Massive Atmospheres

Xiong

Yang

Liu

2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The matter was partially investigated by Kaspi and Showman () and Kilic et al . (), but their model set‐ups were very different and their results too incompatible to compare, with the former using a simplified general circulation model (GCM) without many Earth‐like effects, such as the radiative effect of water vapour, and the latter fixing their surface temperatures independent of gravity. In this paper we revisit the issue, looking at it both as a problem in geophysical fluid dynamics and a problem in planetary climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One expects that a planet with a higher gravity than another, but otherwise the same, would have a thinner (meaning less extended) atmosphere with a higher surface density, but the effects on the circulation and temperature are less clear. The matter was partially investigated by Kilic et al (2017) and Kaspi and Showman (2015), but their model set-ups were very different and their results too incompatible to compare, with the former fixing their surface temperatures independent of gravity, and the latter using a simplified GCM without many Earth-like effects, such as the radiative effect of water vapour. In this paper we revisit the issue, looking at it both as problem in geophysical fluid dynamics and a problem in planetary climate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of gravity on the climate and circulation of a terrestrial planet

Thomson

Vallis

2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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The climate and circulation of a terrestrial planet are governed by, among other things, the distance to its host star, its size, rotation rate, obliquity, atmospheric composition and gravity. Here we explore the effects of the last of these, the Newtonian gravitational acceleration, on its atmosphere and climate. We first demonstrate that, if the atmosphere obeys the hydrostatic primitive equations, which are a very good approximation for most terrestrial atmospheres, and if the radiative forcing is unaltered, changes in gravity have no effect at all on the circulation except for a vertical rescaling. That is to say, the effects of gravity may be completely scaled away and the circulation is unaltered. However, if the atmosphere contains a dilute condensible that is radiatively active, such as water or methane, then an increase in gravity will generally lead to a cooling of the planet because the total path length of the condensible will be reduced as gravity increases, leading to a reduction in the greenhouse effect. Furthermore, the specific humidity will decrease, leading to changes in the moist adiabatic lapse rate, in the Equator-to-Pole heat transport, and in the surface energy balance because of changes in the sensible and latent fluxes. These effects are all demonstrated both by theoretical arguments and by numerical simulations with moist and dry general circulation models. K E Y W O R D S gravitational acceleration; planetary atmosphere; primitive equations; radiative forcing; greenhouse effect; general circulation models 1This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…They found that larger planets have a smaller meridional surface temperature gradient (in units of K km −1 ) but a larger equator-to-pole temperature difference (in a unit of K). Kilic et al (2017a) investigated the effect of varying gravity on the atmospheric circulation using an idealized GCM with fixed surface temperatures. Komacek & Abbot (2019) did a similar work to Kaspi & Showman (2015) but used a more complex GCM that includes the effects of cloud, water vapor feedback, nongray radiative transfer, and sea ice; moreover, they simulated planets orbiting both Sun-like and M-type stars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do Planetary Radius and Gravity Influence the Surface Climate of Earth-like Planets?

Yang¹,

Yang²

2019

Preprint

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About 4000 exoplanets have been confirmed since the year of 1992, and for most of the planets, the main parameters that can be measured are planetary radius and mass.Based on these two parameters, surface gravity can be estimated. In this work, we investigate the effects of varying radius and gravity on the climate of rapidly rotating terrestrial planets with assuming they have an ocean and Earth-like atmospheres (N 2 , CO 2 , and H 2 O). Using a three-dimensional (3D) atmospheric general circulation model (GCM), we find that varying radius mainly influences the equator-to-pole surface temperature difference while varying gravity mainly influences the mean surface temperature. For planets of larger radii, the meridional atmospheric energy transport is weaker, which warms the tropics but cools high latitudes. For planets of larger gravities, the surface is globally cooler due to the fact that saturated vapor pressure depends on air temperature only and column water vapor mass is approximately equal to saturated vapor pressure over gravity multiplied by relative humidity. The relative humidity does not change much in our experiments. Ice albedo and water vapor feedbacks act to further amplify the effects of varying radius and gravity. These results suggest that radius and gravity are important factors for planetary climate, although

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Impact of variations of gravitational acceleration on the general circulation of the planetary atmosphere

Cited by 6 publications

References 40 publications

Smaller Sensitivity of Precipitation to Surface Temperature Under Massive Atmospheres

Smaller Sensitivity of Precipitation to Surface Temperature Under Massive Atmospheres

The effects of gravity on the climate and circulation of a terrestrial planet

How do Planetary Radius and Gravity Influence the Surface Climate of Earth-like Planets?

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