Modelling the Upper Atmosphere of Gas-Giant Exoplanets Irradiated by Low-Mass Stars

This PhD thesis details the development of a new 1D ionospheric model to describe the upper atmospheres of extrasolar giant plants. The upper atmospheres of Hot Jupiters are subject to extreme radiation conditions that can result in rapid atmospheric escape. The composition and structure of these planets' upper atmospheres are affected by high-energy emissions from the host star. The nature of these emissions depends on the stellar type and age, making them important factors in understanding the behaviour of exoplanetary atmospheres.

Autorentext
Dr Joshua Chadney completed his PhD in the Space and Atmospheric Physics Group at Imperial College London in April 2015 on the topic of modelling exoplanetary atmospheres, under the supervision of Dr Marina Galand and Dr Yvonne Unruh. His thesis work involved a multi-disciplinary approach to the exciting and highly dynamic field of exoplanet research, combining atmospheric physics with stellar physics.
Joshua is currently a research fellow in the Space Environment Group at the University of Southampton, where the focus of his work has moved closer to home: Earth's polar atmosphere. He uses a suite of instruments located on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard to observe emissions from the aurora borealis in order to glean more incites into our planet's upper atmosphere.

Inhalt

1 Introduction.- 2 Solar and stellar X-ray and UV radiation.- 3 Thermosphere.- 4 Ionosphere.-5 Conclusions and future work.-References.-Appendix A Neutral densities.- Appendix B Ion densities from the thermospheric model.- Appendix C Summary of permission for third party copyright works.