[Baps] Langton talk: Monday 19th November 2007 "Atmospheric Dynamics on Unevenly Irradiated Jovian Planets"

[Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay]

DATE: Monday 19th November 2007
TIME: 12:00
ROOM: Pratt Conference Room, CfA
SPEAKER: Jonathan Langton (UC Santa Cruz)

"Atmospheric Dynamics on Unevenly Irradiated Jovian Planets"

The increasingly rapid pace of the discovery of extrasolar planets has
brought to light a number of worlds with properties vastly different
from those in our own solar system.  Dramatic examples of this variety
are provided by a class of planets with highly eccentric (e>0.3)
orbits, with very close (a(1-e) < 0.05 AU) periastron passages.  On
these planets, the subsolar irradiance varies by a factor of 3 to
1000, typically reaching ~10^6 W/m^2 at periastron.

I will present the results of two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations
of the upper atmospheres of these planets.  The flow geometry is
complex, turbulent, and primarily driven by the sudden influx of
energy at periastron.  I will focus attention on 4 particularly
interesting planets. HD 80606 b (e=0.9321) has the largest
eccentricity of any planet yet discovered.  HAT-P-2 b (e=0.507)
presents a particularly promising observational target due to the
large infrared flux variation we predict, and due to the fact that it
transits its parent star.  HD 17156 b (e=0.67) also transits.
Finally, HD 37605 b (e=0.737), while not particularly suitable for
observation, occupies an especially interesting dynamical regime, with
persistent circumpolar vortices shielding their interiors from most of
the periastron heating.
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