Exoplanets & Exomoons

Magnetospheric Structure and Atmospheric Joule Heating of Habitable Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.EP
June 4, 2014
Filed under
Magnetospheric Structure and Atmospheric Joule Heating of Habitable Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars

We study the magnetospheric structure and the ionospheric Joule Heating of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars in the habitable zone using a set of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models.

The stellar wind solution is used to drive a model for the planetary magnetosphere, which is coupled with a model for the planetary ionosphere. Our simulations reveal that the space environment around close-in habitable planets is extreme, and the stellar wind plasma conditions change from sub- to super-Alfvenic along the planetary orbit. As a result, the magnetospheric structure changes dramatically with a bow shock forming in the super-Alfvenic sectors, while no bow shock forms in the sub-Alfvenic sectors.

The planets reside most of the time in the sub-Alfvenic sectors with poor atmospheric protection. A significant amount of Joule Heating is provided at the top of the atmosphere as a result of the planetary interaction with the stellar wind. For the steady-state solution, the heating is about 0.1-3\% of the total incoming stellar irradiation, and it is enhanced by 50\% for the time-dependent case.

The significant Joule Heating obtained here should be considered in models for the atmospheres of habitable planets in terms of the thickness of the atmosphere, the top-side temperature and density, the boundary conditions for the atmospheric pressure, and particle radiation and transport.

O. Cohen, J.J. Drake, A. Glocer, C. Garraffo, K. Poppenhaeger, J.M. Bell, A.J. Ridley, T.I. Gombosi (Submitted on 29 May 2014)

Comments: 15 pages, 7 figures

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Cite as: arXiv:1405.7707 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1405.7707v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

Submission history From: Ofer Cohen Dr. [v1] Thu, 29 May 2014 20:05:03 GMT (3773kb,D)

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻