Overcast on Osiris: 3D radiative-hydrodynamical simulations of a cloudy hot Jupiter using the parametrized, phase-equilibrium cloud formation code EDDYSED (article)

Abstract

We present results from 3D radiative-hydrodynamical simulations of HD 209458b with a fully coupled treatment of clouds using the EDDYSED code, critically, including cloud radiative feedback via absorption and scattering. We demonstrate that the thermal and optical structure of the simulated atmosphere is markedly different, for the majority of our simulations, when including cloud radiative effects, suggesting this important mechanism cannot be neglected. Additionally, we further demonstrate that the cloud structure is sensitive to not only the cloud sedimentation efficiency (termed fsed in EDDYSED), but also the temperature–pressure profile of the deeper atmosphere. We briefly discuss the large difference between the resolved cloud structures of this work, adopting a phase-equilibrium and parametrized cloud model, and our previous work incorporating a cloud microphysical model, although a fairer comparison where, for example, the same list of constituent condensates is included in both treatments is reserved for a future work. Our results underline the importance of further study into the potential condensate size distributions and vertical structures, as both strongly influence the radiative impact of clouds on the atmosphere. Finally, we present synthetic observations from our simulations reporting an improved match, over our previous cloud-free simulations, to the observed transmission, HST WFC3 emission, and 4.5 μm Spitzer phase curve of HD 209458b. Additionally, we find all our cloudy simulations have an apparent albedo consistent with observations.