The First Habitable-zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. III. Climate States and Characterization Prospects for TOI-700 d

Suissa, Gabrielle; Wolf, Eric T.; Kopparapu, R.; Villanueva, Gerónimo; Fauchez, Thomas; Mandell, Avi M.; Arney, Giada; Gilbert, Emily A.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Barclay, Thomas; Quintana, Elisa V.; Lopez, Eric; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Vanderburg, Andrew

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aba4b4

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 133 publications

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“…with a period of P = 37.42 days and an equilibrium temperature of T eq ∼ 269 K (Rodriguez et al 2020;Gilbert et al 2020;Suissa et al 2020 and lies in the southern TESS continuous viewing zone. The system was one of the last targets Spitzer observed.…”

Section: Some Notable Tess Firstsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The TESS Objects of Interest Catalog from the TESS Prime Mission

Guerrero¹,

Seager

Huang³

et al. 2021

ApJS

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245

207

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We present 2241 exoplanet candidates identified with data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) during its 2 yr Prime Mission. We list these candidates in the TESS Objects of Interest (TOI) Catalog, which includes both new planet candidates found by TESS and previously known planets recovered by TESS observations. We describe the process used to identify TOIs, investigate the characteristics of the new planet candidates, and discuss some notable TESS planet discoveries. The TOI catalog includes an unprecedented number of small planet candidates around nearby bright stars, which are well suited for detailed follow-up observations. The TESS data products for the Prime Mission (sectors 1-26), including the TOI catalog, light curves, full-frame images, and target pixel files, are publicly available at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

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Section: Some Notable Tess Firstsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The TESS Objects of Interest Catalog from the TESS Prime Mission

Guerrero¹,

Seager

Huang³

et al. 2021

ApJS

Self Cite

245

207

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“…ExoCAM has been well-received and well-used since being made public. ExoCAM, and its ancestral versions, have been employed for a wide variety of studies, including the Faint Young Sun Paradox for Earth (Wolf & Toon 2013, 2014a, high-CO 2 atmospheres (Wolf et al 2018;Zhang et al 2021), runaway and moist greenhouse thresholds for Earth (Wolf & Toon 2014b, Earth-like extrasolar planets (Wolf et al 2017;Adams et al 2019;Kang 2019aKang , 2019bKang , 2019c, habitable zone exoplanets around M-dwarf stars (Kopparapu et al 2017;Wolf 2017;Haqq-Misra et al 2018;Komacek et al , 2020aKomacek et al , 2020bWolf et al 2019;Yang et al 2019a;Hu et al 2020;Rushby et al 2020;Suissa et al 2020b;Wei et al 2020;Chen et al 2021;May et al 2021;Song & Yang 2021), planets in circumbinary systems (Wolf et al 2020), and model intercomparison studies (Yang et al 2016(Yang et al , 2019bFauchez et al 2020Turbet et al 2021). ExoCAM results have also been used off-line in projects to drive photochemistry and observability studies (Afrin Badhan et al 2019;Suissa et al 2020a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ExoCAM: A 3D Climate Model for Exoplanet Atmospheres

Wolf¹,

Kopparapu

Haqq-Misra

et al. 2022

Planet. Sci. J.

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The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI) project was initiated to compare 3D climate models that are commonly used for predicting theoretical climates of habitable zone extrasolar planets. One of the core models studied as part of THAI is ExoCAM, an independently curated exoplanet branch of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Earth System Model (CESM), version 1.2.1. ExoCAM has been used for studying atmospheres of terrestrial extrasolar planets around a variety of stars. To accompany the THAI project and provide a primary reference, here we describe ExoCAM and what makes it unique from standard configurations of CESM. Furthermore, we also conduct a series of intramodel sensitivity tests of relevant moist physical tuning parameters while using the THAI protocol as our starting point. A common criticism of 3D climate models used for exoplanet modeling is that cloud and convection routines often contain free parameters that are tuned to the modern Earth, and thus may be a source of uncertainty in evaluating exoplanet climates. Here, we explore sensitivities to numerous configuration and parameter selections, including a recently updated radiation scheme, a different cloud and convection physics package, different cloud and precipitation tuning parameters, and a different sea ice albedo. Improvements to our radiation scheme and the modification of cloud particle sizes have the largest effects on global mean temperatures, with variations up to ∼10 K, highlighting the requirement for accurate radiative transfer and the importance of cloud microphysics for simulating exoplanetary climates. However, for the vast majority of sensitivity tests, climate differences are small. For all cases studied, intramodel differences do not bias general conclusions regarding climate states and habitability.

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“…For such conditions, the associated high planetary albedo could place the inner edge of the habitable zone closer to the host star (Yang et al 2013;Kopparapu et al 2016). This intense cloud formation could also limit the detectability of water vapour and other species from transmission spectroscopy (Fauchez et al 2019;Komacek et al 2020;Suissa et al 2020). These studies illustrate the importance of 3D modelling to assess the effect of clouds on observational spectra.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation and dynamics of water clouds on temperate sub-Neptunes: the example of K2-18b

Charnay

Blain

Bézard

et al. 2021

A&A

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Context. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectroscopic transit observations of the temperate sub-Neptune K2-18b were interpreted as the presence of water vapour with potential water clouds. 1D modelling studies also predict the formation of water clouds in K2-18b’s atmosphere in some conditions. However, such models cannot predict the cloud cover, which is driven by atmospheric dynamics and thermal contrasts, and thus neither can they predict the real impact of clouds on spectra. Aims. The main goal of this study is to understand the formation, distribution, and observational consequences of water clouds on K2-18b and other temperate sub-Neptunes. Methods. We simulated the atmospheric dynamics, water cloud formation, and spectra of K2-18b for a H2-dominated atmosphere using a 3D general circulation model. We analysed the impact of atmospheric composition (with metallicity from 1× solar to 1000× solar), concentration of cloud condensation nuclei, and planetary rotation rate. Results. Assuming that K2-18b has a synchronous rotation, we show that the atmospheric circulation in the upper atmosphere essentially corresponds to a symmetric day-to-night circulation with very efficient heat redistribution. This regime preferentially leads to cloud formation at the sub-stellar point or at the terminator. Clouds form at metallicity ≥100× solar with relatively large particles (radius = 30–450 μm). At 100–300× solar metallicity, the cloud fraction at the terminators is small with a limited impact on transit spectra. At 1000× solar metallicity, very thick clouds form at the terminator, greatly flattening the transit spectrum. The cloud distribution appears very sensitive to the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei and to the planetary rotation rate, although the impact on transit spectra is modest in the near-infrared. Fitting HST transit data with our simulated spectra suggests a metallicity of ~100–300× solar, which is consistent with the mass-metallicity trend of giant planets in the Solar System. In addition, we found that the cloud fraction at the terminator can be highly variable in some conditions, leading to a potential variability in transit spectra that is correlated with spectral windows. This effect could be common on cloudy exoplanets and could be detectable with multiple transit observations. Finally, the complex cloud dynamics revealed in this study highlight the inherent 3D nature of clouds shaped by couplings between microphysics, radiation, and atmospheric circulation.

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The First Habitable-zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. III. Climate States and Characterization Prospects for TOI-700 d

Cited by 26 publications

References 133 publications

The TESS Objects of Interest Catalog from the TESS Prime Mission

The TESS Objects of Interest Catalog from the TESS Prime Mission

ExoCAM: A 3D Climate Model for Exoplanet Atmospheres

Formation and dynamics of water clouds on temperate sub-Neptunes: the example of K2-18b

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