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. 2019 Jan;19(1):99-125.
doi: 10.1089/ast.2017.1760. Epub 2018 Sep 5.

Habitable Climate Scenarios for Proxima Centauri b with a Dynamic Ocean

Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 1 NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , New York, New York.
  • 2 2 Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University , New York, New York.
  • 3 3 Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University , New York, New York.
  • 4 4 SciSpace LLC , New York, New York.
  • 5 5 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Maryland.

Habitable Climate Scenarios for Proxima Centauri b with a Dynamic Ocean

Anthony D Del Genio et al. Astrobiology. 2019 Jan.
. 2019 Jan;19(1):99-125.
doi: 10.1089/ast.2017.1760. Epub 2018 Sep 5.

Affiliations

  • 1 1 NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , New York, New York.
  • 2 2 Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University , New York, New York.
  • 3 3 Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University , New York, New York.
  • 4 4 SciSpace LLC , New York, New York.
  • 5 5 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Maryland.

Abstract

The nearby exoplanet Proxima Centauri b will be a prime future target for characterization, despite questions about its retention of water. Climate models with static oceans suggest that Proxima b could harbor a small dayside surface ocean despite its weak instellation. We present the first climate simulations of Proxima b with a dynamic ocean. We find that an ocean-covered Proxima b could have a much broader area of surface liquid water but at much colder temperatures than previously suggested, due to ocean heat transport and/or depression of the freezing point by salinity. Elevated greenhouse gas concentrations do not necessarily produce more open ocean because of dynamical regime transitions between a state with an equatorial Rossby-Kelvin wave pattern and a state with a day-night circulation. For an evolutionary path leading to a highly saline ocean, Proxima b could be an inhabited, mostly open ocean planet with halophilic life. A freshwater ocean produces a smaller liquid region than does an Earth salinity ocean. An ocean planet in 3:2 spin-orbit resonance has a permanent tropical waterbelt for moderate eccentricity. A larger versus smaller area of surface liquid water for similar equilibrium temperature may be distinguishable by using the amplitude of the thermal phase curve. Simulations of Proxima Centauri b may be a model for the habitability of weakly irradiated planets orbiting slightly cooler or warmer stars, for example, in the TRAPPIST-1, LHS 1140, GJ 273, and GJ 3293 systems.

Keywords: Aquaplanet; Climate; Exoplanets; General circulation model; Habitability; Proxima Centauri b.

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