Global Climate Models Archives - Astrobiology

Dataset overview. Output fields are defined on a 32 × 64 latitude–longitude grid. There are 53 fields in total and ∼ 105 output dimensions. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

ThousandWorlds: A Benchmark For Climate Emulation Of Potentially Habitable Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 19, 2026June 19, 2026

The search for life beyond Earth will depend on detecting faint signatures in the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets.

The figure shows the HPLC Chromatograms of Amino Acids produced in the Sample B5 irradiation run. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Proton Irradiation of Primitive Atmospheres of Young Exoplanets And Early Earth: N2O Greenhouse Warming And Prebiotic Synthesis

by Keith CowingMarch 22, 2026March 22, 2026

The emergence of habitable conditions on the early Earth and on rocky exoplanets requires persistent energy sources that can drive both prebiotic chemistry and climate warming under magnetically active young […]

Liquid CWP distributions for different rotation periods (columns). The top row shows zonal mean values for MG (blue) and CARMA (red). The middle and bottom rows show annual mean maps for MG and CARMA. - astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release

The Effect of Planetary Rotation Period on Clouds in a Global Climate Model with a Bin Microphysics Scheme

by Keith CowingMarch 7, 2026March 7, 2026

Clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in climate simulations. For exoplanets, cloud simulation is particularly challenging because of the lack of observational data to tune parameterized cloud models.

[L] Latitude-longitude maps of surface temperature overlaid with the wind field at the bottom layer, and surface precipitation. The black contours indicate where the surface temperature is 50◦ Celsius. [R] Latitude-longitude maps of surface temperature overlaid with the wind field at the bottom layer, and surface precipitation, for ISR = 1580 Wm−2 , which brings the climate to the onset of a runaway greenhouse effect. The minimum surface temperature between the two surface albedo cases is 345 K or 72◦C.Latitude-longitude maps of surface temperature overlaid with the wind field at the bottom layer, and surface precipitation, for ISR = 1580 Wm−2 , which brings the climate to the onset of a runaway greenhouse effect. The minimum surface temperature between the two surface albedo cases is 345 K or 72◦C. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Near The Runaway: The Climate And Habitability Of Teegarden’s Star b

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2025October 15, 2025

Teegarden’s Star b, a nearby terrestrial world receiving an Earth-like instellation, is a prime candidate for next-generation observatories targeting temperate exoplanets in their habitable zones.

This artist’s concept depicts planet TRAPPIST-1 d passing in front of its turbulent star, with other members of the closely packed system shown in the background. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Webb Narrows Atmospheric Possibilities For Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d

by Keith CowingAugust 13, 2025August 13, 2025

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our solar system because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around […]

Joint posterior constraints on the surface partial pressure of key atmospheric absorbers for atmospheric scenarios similar to solar system terrestrials, with N2 as the background gas. The color shadings correspond to the posterior probability mass, and the contours highlight the 68% and 95% confidence regions from the joint retrieval in each case. The absorber in the N2-background atmosphere is labeled in the top right corner of each panel. The dashed-dotted, dashed, and solid sienna lines correspond to an atmospheric surface pressure of 0.1, 1, and 10 bar. We illustrate where typical models of Archean Earth (AE), Modern Earth (ME), and compositions for Titan (T), early Mars (eMa), Mars (Ma), and Venus (V; Encrenaz & Coustenis 2018) approximately lie relative to our constraints for TRAPPIST-1 d. Star markers correspond to specific cloudy cases, where the planet is modeled as either cloudy or cloud-free (for Titan, Modern Earth, and Venus). For the N2-H2O case, we show as a black dotted line the limit of pressures that would be cut off by refraction in a 11 bar atmosphere (10 bar H2O+1 bar N2). For thinner atmospheres, the impact of refraction on atmosphere detectability is even weaker. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Strict Limits On Potential Secondary Atmospheres On The Temperate Rocky Exo-Earth TRAPPIST-1 d

by Keith CowingAugust 13, 2025August 13, 2025

The nearby TRAPPIST-1 system, with its seven small rocky planets orbiting a late-type M8 star, offers an unprecedented opportunity to search for secondary atmospheres on temperate terrestrial worlds.

For simulated transit observations, the GlobES app performs RT calculations across the terminator and integrates the different spectra employing equal weights. For direct imaging and secondary eclipse simulations, the algorithm performs RT simulations across the whole observable disk, and the individual spectra are integrated considering the projected area of each bin. An example of surface temperature maps at various phase angles from Suissa et al. (2020) produced from the ExoCAM GCM (Wolf et al., 2022) are also shown. -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

From Global Climate Models (GCMs) to Exoplanet Spectra with the Global Emission Spectra (GlobES)

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2025September 18, 2025

In the quest to understand the climates and atmospheres of exoplanets, 3D global climate models (GCMs) have become indispensable.

Phase curve offset and link to the dayside cloud structures for different irradiation temperatures. (a): NIRSpec optical wavelengths phase curve offsets. Simulations with different irradiation temperatures are represented with different colours. (b): Column mass of clouds (both Na2S and KCl are considered in these maps), for the same irradiation temperatures as in the left panel. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Warm Jupiters Around M-dwarfs are Great Opportunities for Extensive Chemical, Cloud and Haze Characterisation with JWST

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2024August 28, 2024

The population of short-period giant exoplanets around M-dwarf stars is slowly rising. These planets present an extraordinary opportunity for atmospheric characterisation and defy our current understanding of planetary formation.

Schematic representation of the two-column model. Gray boxes represent the free atmosphere (pressure < 1 bar). Blue boxes represent the shortwave extinction layer (presure ∼ 1 bar). Orange arrows represent shortwave radiative fluxes, blue arrows represent outgoing longwave radiation to space, and black arrows represent atmospheric heat advection. The dayside column consists of a cloudy part and a clear-sky part; we also include an optional stratospheric (< 0.1 bar) nightside cloud that blocks nightside longwave emission. The updated modules compared to Yang & Abbot (2014) are indicated by ovals. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Climate Bistability At The Inner Edge Of The Habitable Zone Due To Runaway Greenhouse And Cloud Feedbacks

by Keith CowingAugust 23, 2024

Understanding the climate dynamics at the inner edge of the habitable zone (HZ) is crucial for predicting the habitability of rocky exoplanets. Previous studies using Global Climate Models (GCMs) have […]

Spectrophotometric transit fits of LHS 1140 b for visit 1 (UT2023-12-01, left) and visit 2 (UT2023-12-26, right) and LHS 1140 c for visit 2 only. The broadband (‘white’) light curves are shown in top panels with the best-fit full model (transit + systematics) shown in black and systematics component only in pink (scaled 10× for clarity). For both visits, examples of 10 systematics-corrected spectroscopic bins are depicted with colored points in bottom panels. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2024June 24, 2024

LHS 1140 b is the second-closest temperate transiting planet to the Earth with an equilibrium temperature low enough to support surface liquid water.