MITgcm goes to EPSC2021

story by Helen Hill for MITgcm

This month we showcase researchers using MITgcm to understand the complexities of atmospheric dynamics on other worlds.

Multiple members of the exoplanetary modeling community use MITgcm in their exploration of exotic extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Among those sharing work at the recent 2021 European Planetary Science Congress (formerly the European Planetary Science Congress), three teams using models incorporating MITgcm presented research into the character of Hot Jupiters, a class of gas giant with a very short orbital period.

Alexander Roth, a PhD candidate at Oxford University in the UK, working with Vivien Parmentier (Cloudy with a Chance of Aliens), now an associate professor in the Physics Department there, presented their work using SPARC/MITgcm to build a library of 3D hot Jupiter simulations spanning the wide range of stellar irradiance, metallicity, gravity, rotation period and the presence of strong photo-absorbing molecules TiO and VO with a view to helping interpret existing and future Hot Jupiter exoplanet observations.

Also on the subject of Hot Jupiters, in this case with a focus on understanding the coupling between their atmospheres and interiors, Aaron Schneider, working with Ludmila Carone (a postdoctoral researcher as Max Plank Institut fur Astronomie), Leen Decin (Professor in stellar and exoplanet astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven), and Uffe Jorgensen (Associate Professor in Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the Niels Bohr Institute) reported on their fully coupled 3D-radiation-hydrodynamical simulations using the new “full RT 3D climate model MITgcm/ExoRadPRT” for WASP-43 b and HD209458 b. [Link to talk recording]

Shang-Min Tsai (another doctoral candidate from Oxford University Physics Department) working with Maria Steinrueck (Wild and Windy Exoplanets), Vivien Parmentier (see above), Nicole Lewis, and Raymond Pierrehumbert used MITgcm to model the atmosphere of the highly eccentric hot Jupiter HD 80606b with a focus, in particular, on its response to the extreme variation in stellar irradiance experienced by the planet.

Story image: Wikimedia

If you are a planetary scientist using MITgcm, email hlh@mit.edu. We love to hear what y’all are working on!

Featured Publications

Related Publication

Showman et al. (2009), Atmospheric Circulation of Hot Jupiters: Coupled Radiative-Dynamical General Circulation Model Simulations of HD 189733b and HD 209458b was the paper that originally adapted MITgcm to model Hot Jupiters by adding the appropriate radiative transfer component.

Other New Publications in September

Ryan Abernathey, Anand Gnanadesikan, Marie-Aude Pradal, Miles A. Sundermeyer (2021), Isopycnal mixing, Ch 9, Ocean Mixing: Drivers, mechanisms and impacts (pub. Elsevier), doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-821512-8.00016-5

L.R. Bardon, B.A. Ward, S. Dutkiewicz, and B.B. Cael (2021), How predictable is plankton biogeography using 2 statistical learning methods? (Under consideration at Geophysical Research Letters), doi: 10.1002/essoar.10507872.2

Baylor Fox-Kemper, Leah Johnson, Fangli Qiao (2021), Chapter 4 – Ocean near-surface layers, Ocean Mixing pub. Elsevier, Drivers, mechanisms and impacts, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-821512-8.00011-6

Harker, A.A., Schindelegger, M., Ponte, R.M. et al. (2021), Modeling ocean-induced rapid Earth rotation variations: an update, Journal of  Geodesy, doi: 10.1007/s00190-021-01555-z

Yangxin He (2021), Effects of a Geostrophic Current on the Propagation and Generation of Internal Tides, University of Waterloo doctoral dissertation https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/17312/He_Yangxin.pdf

Tim Hill (2021), Mathematical modelling of supraglacial meltwater production and drainage, University of Waterloo masters dissertation, https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/17307/Hill_Tim.pdf

Yueng-Djern Lenn, Ilker Fer, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Jennifer A. MacKinnon (2021), Chapter 11 – Mixing in the Arctic Ocean, Ocean Mixing pub. Elsevier, Drivers, mechanisms and impacts, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-821512-8.00018-9

Michaelovitch de Mahiques, M., Violante, R., Franco-Fraguas, P., Burone, L., Barbedo Rocha, C., Ortega, L., Felicio dos Santos, R., Mi Kim, B. S., Lopes Figueira, R. C., and Caruso Bícego, M. (2021),  Control of oceanic circulation on sediment distribution in the southwestern Atlantic margin (23 to 55° S), Ocean Science, doi: 10.5194/os-17-1213-2021

Molcard, A., Gramoullé, A., Mazoyer, C. et al. (2021), Dynamics and transport from the boundary Northern Current toward the Toulon Bay: multi-platform observations and downscaling modelling approaches. Ocean Dynamics, doi: 10.1007/s10236-021-01479-4

Yoshihiro Nakayama, Cilan Cai, Helene Seroussi (2021), Impact of Subglacial Freshwater Discharge on Pine Island Ice Shelf, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2021GL093923

Papagiannopoulos, N., Raitsos, D.E., Krokos, G., Gittings, J.A., Brewin, R.J.W., Papadopoulos, V.P., Pavlidou, A., Selmes, N.; Groom, S., Hoteit, I. (2021), Phytoplankton Biomass and the Hydrodynamic Regime in NEOM, Red Sea. Remote Sensing, doi: 10.3390/rs13112082

Purkiani K, Gillard B, Paul A, Haeckel M, Haalboom S, Greinert J, de Stigter H, Hollstein M, Baeye M, Vink A, Thomsen L and Schulz M (2021), Numerical Simulation of Deep-Sea Sediment Transport Induced by a Dredge Experiment in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, Front. Mar. Sci., doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.719463

Jonathan Gula, John Taylor, Andrey Shcherbin, Amala Mahadevan (2021), Chapter 8 – Submesoscale processes and mixing, Ocean Mixing pub. Elsevier, Drivers, mechanisms and impacts, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-821512-8.00015-3

Arjun B. Savel et al (2021), No umbrella needed: Confronting the hypothesis of iron rain on WASP-76b with post-processed general circulation models, arXiv:2109.00163 [astro-ph.EP] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.00163.pdf

Qiang Tang, Xiaomeng Huang, Lei Lin, Wei Xiong, Dong Wang, Mingqing Wang, Xing Huang (2021),  MERF v3.0, a highly computationally efficient non-hydrostatic ocean model with implicit parallelism: Algorithms and validation experiments, Ocean Modelling, doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2021.101877

Clément Ubelmann, Loren Carrere, Chloé Durand, Gérald Dibarboure, Yannice Faugère, Maxime Ballarotta, Frédéric Briol, and Florent Lyard (2021), Simultaneous estimation of Ocean mesoscale and coherent internal tide Sea Surface Height signatures from the global Altimetry record, Ocean Science, doi: 10.5194/os-2021-80

Wang, X., Liu, C., Köhl, A. et al. (2021), The adjoint-based Two Oceans One Sea State Estimate (TOOSSE), Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, doi: 10.1007/s00343-021-0439-9

Wickramage, C.H., Wang, W., Arulananthan, K. et al. (2021), Dynamics of counter wind current along the south Sri Lanka coast during the Southwest Monsoon, Ocean Dynamics, doi: 10.1007/s10236-021-01477-6

Do you have news about research using MITgcm? We are looking for contributions to these pages. If you have an interesting MITgcm project (ocean, atmosphere, sea-ice, physics, biology or otherwise) that you want to tell people about, get in touch. To make a post, contact Helen