Abstract
The Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) has been updated to apply to atmospheres of the Solar System outside of Earth. CARMA, as its name suggests, is a coupled aerosol microphysics and radiative transfer model and includes the processes of nucleation, condensation, evaporation, coagulation, and vertical transport. Previous model versions have been applied separately to the atmospheres of Solar System bodies and extrasolar planets. The primary advantage to PlanetCARMA is that the core physics routines each reside in their own self-contained modules and can be turned on/off as desired while a separate planet module supplies all the necessary parameters to apply the model run to a particular planet (or planetary body). So a single codebase is used for all planetary studies. PlanetCARMA has also been updated to Fortran 90 modular format. Examples of outer solar system atmosphere applications are shown.
Highlights
The Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) has been an important tool in understanding the microphysical interactions of gases and particles in the Earth’s atmosphere.Versions of this model have been adapted on an individual basis to solar system terrestrial [1,2,3,4], giant [5,6,7], and extrasolar planet atmospheres [8,9]
PlanetCARMA, has been developed which allows a single, common codebase to be used for modeling any planetary atmosphere to which CARMA could previously be applied
PlanetCARMA provides a single codebase for comparison studies of atmospheres, eliminating any biases introduced from using different models to approach the same study
Summary
The Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) has been an important tool in understanding the microphysical interactions of gases and particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. PlanetCARMA, has been developed which allows a single, common codebase to be used for modeling any planetary atmosphere to which CARMA could previously be applied. This is possible because the underlying physical equations and numerical methods have remained unchanged for each atmosphere modeled. Modifications specific to an atmosphere can be stored in separate modules and the full model compiled for an individual planetary atmosphere The advantages of this method include more efficient model upkeep; for example, improvements to a common physics algorithm need only be coded once and are available for all planet modes of execution. A description of each physical process is included below, as well as changes that have been added in the course of planetary modeling and implementation into the PlanetCARMA framework
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