Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufmsa53b1178s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #SA53B-1178
Other
3309 Climatology (1616, 1620, 3305, 4215, 8408), 3359 Radiative Processes, 5210 Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes (0343), 5225 Early Environment Of Earth
Scientific paper
One of the greatest discoveries of this century will surely be the detection of an Earth-like extrasolar planet, orbiting in a "habitable zone" around its host star. NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is being designed to detect and characterize Earth-like planets around nearby stars. Because extrasolar planets are so distant, they will appear only as point sources. Therefore, any observable quantities, such as obtained spectra, will be spatially integrated over an observed planetary hemisphere. Earth's spectral signature has changed throughout its climatic evolution, and hence, we have many examples of "Earth as an extrasolar planet" to study. A study of Earth paleoclimates and their hemispherically integrated radiative signatures will provide insight into the range of habitable environments that could exist on Earth-like extrasolar planets. Such a range is key to ensure that TPF can detect and characterize a wide range of Earth-like planets, and may even discern their climates and habitability. In this study, we utilize the 3D NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Model II General Circulation Model (GCM) to simulate Earth-based paleoclimatic conditions. We then use the diagnostic output from the GCM (such as temperature, specific humidity, albedo, cloud cover, snow and ice cover) in a line-by-line radiative transfer code to compute planetary spectra and other radiative signatures for our simulations. We chose to focus on cold climate variations, specifically simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum and Neoproterzoic glaciations (e.g., "snowball Earth"), for we expect that the more extreme climate variations may produce the most distinctive radiative signatures, quite discernable from our modern signature. For example, we found that our Neoproterzoic simulation produced a 94.6% increase in snow and ice cover from the modern run, which had dramatic radiative effects. We present our results on the spectral signatures of various paleo-Earth climate simulations in comparison to modern-day Earth.
Chandler Mark
Seager Sara
Shopsin M.
Shukla S. P.
No associations
LandOfFree
Using Ancient Earth Climates as a Model for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Using Ancient Earth Climates as a Model for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Using Ancient Earth Climates as a Model for Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-755132