Modeled Temperature-dependent Clouds with Radiative Feedback in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres

Abstract

Abstract Using a general circulation model with newly implemented cloud modeling, we investigate how radiative feedback can self-consistently shape condensate cloud distributions, temperatures, and fluxes in a hot Jupiter atmosphere. We apply a physically motivated but simple parameterization of condensate clouds in which the temperature determines the cloud distribution, and we evaluate how different assumptions of vertical mixing and aerosol opacity affect predictions. We compare results from cases in which the aerosols are simply included in the last step of the simulation (i.e., postprocessed) to cases in which clouds and their radiative feedback are actively included throughout the duration of the simulation. When clouds and radiative feedback were actively included, cloud cover decreased at equatorial regions and increased toward the poles relative to the postprocessed solutions. The resulting phase curves also differed between the two approaches; the postprocessed cloud simulations predicted weaker day–night contrasts in emission and greater eastward shifts in the maximum emission compared to the active cloud modeling. This illustrates the importance of cloud radiative feedback and shows that postprocessing can provide inaccurate solutions when clouds are thick enough to provide significant scattering.