event
Wednesday 01 May 2019: [Seminar] Atmospheric Convection on Tidally-Locked Earth-like Exoplanets
Dr Denis Sergeev - University of Exeter
4th Floor, Physics Building 14:00-15:00
On extrasolar planets, many aspects of non-rotating atmospheric dynamics, such as convection, play a crucial role in determining circulation regimes and ultimately their potential habitability.
A few previous studies have already hinted at the importance of choosing the convective parameterisation for correct estimates of the onset of runaway greenhouse effect on exoplanets.
While there are plenty of in-situ and remote observations on Earth to constrain and validate convection schemes, no such measurements are available for exoplanets yet.
Hence the next best option is to run convection-resolving simulations in a limited-area domain, which in turn can be compared to global model output and used to tune convective parameterisations.
I address these questions by employing the latest version of the UK Met Office Unified Model, adapted for exoplanet simulations, in the so-called nesting suite set-up that allows for a seamless approach to atmospheric modelling at different scales.
Preliminary results show differences in the export of heat and moisture from the substellar region to the night side of the planet in simulations with parameterised compared to runs with explicitly-resolved convection.
