Early Time Small-scale Structures in Hot Exoplanet Atmosphere Simulations

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adb0ce
• Publication Date: 2025-03-19T06:33:02Z
• Authors: J. W. Skinner; J. Y-K. Cho

Abstract We report on the critical influence of small-scale flow structures (e.g., fronts, vortices, and waves) that immediately arise in hot exoplanet atmosphere simulations initialized with a resting state. A hot, 1:1 spin–orbit synchronized Jupiter is used here as clear example; but, phenomenon generic important for any type planet—gaseous, oceanic, or telluric. When early time are not captured (due to, e.g., poor resolution and/or too much dissipation), behavior markedly different at later times, an observationally significant way; example, large scales smoother less dynamic. This results temperature field, its corresponding thermal flux, to be incorrectly predicted numerical simulations, even when quantities spatially averaged.