wiki:PlanetaryAtmospheres

Version 25 (modified by Jonathan, 9 years ago) ( diff )

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Defining the parameter space for stellar-planetary wind interactions

Assuming circular orbits, we can define the problem using these 11 primary variables

Mass of planet
Radius of planet
Temperature at planet surface
Density at planet surface
Magnetic field strength of planet
Mass of star
Radius of star
Temperature at stellar surface
Density at stellar surface
Magnetic field of star
orbital separation

Now the Euler equations with 2 body potential are as follows.

If we consider the dimensionless form for the equations, we find that the dimensionless equations are unchanged under arbitrary changes in density, length, and time, as long as the initial conditions have the same mach number, Alfven number, and as long as the strength of the potential scales with the velocity2, and the shape of the potential scales with the length scale.

This implies that must be constant, must scale with the length scale, and that must scale with the inverse time scale.

Time and length similarities allow us to fix the total mass and separation without loss of generality. In addition, the actual densities don't matter - just their ratios, so we can also fix the planetary density without loss of generality. So we can reduce the list of 9 primary variables to the following eight dimensionless variables that define the interaction

mass ratio
ratio of densities at surfaces
dimensionless planetary radius
dimensionless stellar radius
characterizes planetary wind
characterizes stellar wind
beta of planet
beta of star

Now instead of those 8, we may want to define the following 5 length scales, and density ratio, and magnetic/kinetic ratios at the bow shock

Ratio of Hill radius to orbital radius
Ratio bow shock radius to orbital radius
Ratio of planetary radius to orbital radius
Ratio of sonic radius of planetary wind to planetary orbital radius
Density ratio at bow shock.
Ratio of sonic radius of stellar wind to planetary orbital radius
Ratio of planetary magnetic pressure to ram pressure (plus thermal) at bow shock
Ratio of stellar magnetic pressure to ram pressure (plus thermal) at bow shock

Using the following relations,

orbital angular velocity
Hill radius
stellar sound speed
planetary sound speed
bow shock standoff distance

and the dimensionless solution to the Parker Wind

which gives us the following solutions for the stellar and planetary winds

We can directly calculate

and numerically solve the following 3 equations for and , and

Note

and

so

Matsakos et al, compare the ordering of the Hill radius (Rt), the wind bow radius Rw (from ram pressure only), and the magnetic bow radius RM (from magnetic pressure) which give 6 different possible orderings. They lump them into 4 different types - based on 3 length scales.

I
II
III
III
IV
IV

Assuming that the planetary radius is always the smallest, there are still 4 free parameters to the problem. They did not essentially explore

  1. Where the location of the stellar sonic surface is in relation to the other length scales
  2. Where the location of the planetary sonic surcface is in relation to the other length scales (they mention that the planetary thermal pressure is assumed to be negligible
  3. The density ratio at the shock
  4. How magnetized the stellar wind is

Also, the bow shock radius will always be larger than the magnetic radius and the ram pressure radius, and perhaps it makes more sense to talk about the bow shock radius and the degree of magnetization then to talk about the 'magnetic' and 'ram pressure' radii as independent constructs.

Planetary Atmospheres

Profiles

  • Density

  • Enclosed Mass

  • Pressure - and rho*R*T mismatch

Module supports

  • Global simulation in a fixed frame
  • Global simulation in a rotating frame
  • Local simulation in a rotating frame
  • Spatial based Refinement of planet
  • Stellar envelope in HSE
  • Source code problem.f90
  • Data file problem.data
  • Uses Particles, Ambients, Clumps, and Refinement Objects

Still working on

  • Basic testing of hydrostatic equilibrium for planet
  • Line transfer for stellar heating
  • Second AMR implicit solve may need to be added later (ie Howell and Greenough 2002)

Results

Working on getting stable planetary atmosphere using profile without a core. Turning on characteristic limiting seems to cause numerical artifacts which lead to 'explosion'. See ticket #

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