Simulating the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The current generation of exoplanet discovery missions has revealed the diversity of exoplanetary systems that
include rocky worlds within the habitable zone of the host star. Future missions will be probing the atmospheres of
these planets with unprecedented sensitivity and spectral resolution. This project will use state-of-the-art coupled
chemistry global circulation models, based upon the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), to
simulate the composition and dynamical structure of rocky exoplanets.
The successful candidate will receive training in planetary atmospheric physics and chemistry, computer
programming, the use highly parallelised numerical codes running on high performance computing (HPC) systems
and tools for analysis and visualisation of large datasets.
include rocky worlds within the habitable zone of the host star. Future missions will be probing the atmospheres of
these planets with unprecedented sensitivity and spectral resolution. This project will use state-of-the-art coupled
chemistry global circulation models, based upon the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), to
simulate the composition and dynamical structure of rocky exoplanets.
The successful candidate will receive training in planetary atmospheric physics and chemistry, computer
programming, the use highly parallelised numerical codes running on high performance computing (HPC) systems
and tools for analysis and visualisation of large datasets.