The coupled impacts of atmospheric dynamics and cloud microphysics on hot Jupiter atmospheres. I. An application to WASP-43b

Emeline F. Fromont; Thaddeus D. Komacek; Peter Gao; Hayley Q. Beltz; Sarah E. Moran; Arjun B. Savel; Julia Cottingham; Isaac Malsky; Diana Powell; Xianyu Tan; Eliza M. -R. Kempton; Vivien Parmentier

arXiv · 2610.30243

The coupled impacts of atmospheric dynamics and cloud microphysics on hot Jupiter atmospheres. I. An application to WASP-43b

Emeline F. Fromont·Thaddeus D. Komacek·Peter Gao·Hayley Q. Beltz·Sarah E. Moran·Arjun B. Savel·Julia Cottingham·Isaac Malsky·Diana Powell·Xianyu Tan·Eliza M. -R. Kempton·Vivien Parmentier

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Abstract

Understanding the influence of cloud-circulation feedback on planetary climates is crucial to interpreting solar system and extrasolar planet observations. Hot Jupiter phase curve observations have reported westward optical phase curve offsets and weak absorption features, which may be explained by the presence of clouds. JWST observations have also revealed tentative silicate cloud absorption features in emission and transmission spectroscopy. While a number of 3D atmospheric dynamics models of hot Jupiters and microphysical models describing cloud formation exist, few combine these two approaches. To help elucidate the impact of clouds on hot Jupiters, we introduce a post-processing scheme with the 3D GCM ADAM with SPARC (formerly SPARC/MITgcm), the 1D microphysical cloud model CARMA, and the radiative transfer code PICASO. We first simulate the cloud-free atmosphere of WASP-43b with ADAM, then incorporate resulting thermal profiles into CARMA to simulate WASP-43b's cloud structure, and finally generate phase-dependent emission spectra from our results with PICASO. By comparing to JWST observations, we infer that WASP-43b has a cloudy nightside, a mostly clear morning and evening limb with patchy clouds, and a clear dayside at the level of the photosphere. Our microphysical model predicts the condensation of five cloud species, including silicates, but overestimates the cloud opacity at all phases compared to observations, requiring additional modeling to explain. The results from this post-processing setup are promising for more meaningful characterization of WASP-43b's atmosphere, and will serve as a comparison baseline for our upcoming indirect coupling of both models, as well as for other future studies.

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Emeline F. Fromont, Thaddeus D. Komacek, Peter Gao, Hayley Q. Beltz, Sarah E. Moran, Arjun B. Savel, Julia Cottingham, Isaac Malsky, Diana Powell, Xianyu Tan, Eliza M. -R. Kempton, Vivien Parmentier. 2026-10-21. The coupled impacts of atmospheric dynamics and cloud microphysics on hot Jupiter atmospheres. I. An application to WASP-43b. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30243

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