Early Time Small-scale Structures in Hot Exoplanet Atmosphere Simulations

Abstract We report on the critical influence of small-scale flow structures (e.g., fronts, vortices, and waves) that immediately arise in hot exoplanet atmosphere simulations initialized with a resting state. A hot, 1:1 spin–orbit synchronized Jupiter is used here as a clear example; but, the phenomenon is generic and important for any type of a hot synchronized planet—gaseous, oceanic, or telluric. When the early time structures are not captured in simulations (due to, e.g., poor resolution and/or too much dissipation), the flow behavior is markedly different at later times, in an observationally significant way; for example, the flow at large scales is smoother and much less dynamic. This results in the temperature field, and its corresponding thermal flux, to be incorrectly predicted in numerical simulations, even when the quantities are spatially averaged.