Abstract
Here we use a 3-D climate system model to study the habitability of
Earth-like planets orbiting in circumbinary systems. A circumbinary
system is one where a planet orbits around two stars simultaneously,
resulting in large and rapid changes to both the stellar energy
distribution and the total stellar energy received by the planet. We
find that Earth-like planets, having abundant surface liquid water, are
generally effective at buffering against these time-dependent changes in
the stellar irradiation due to the high thermal inertia of oceans
compared with the relatively short periods of circumbinary-driven
variations in the received stellar flux. Ocean surface temperatures
exhibit little to no variation in time, however land surfaces can
experience modest changes in temperature, thus exhibiting an additional
mode of climate variability driven by the circumbinary variations.
Still, meaningful oscillations in surface temperatures are only found
for circumbinary system architectures featuring the largest physically
possible amplitudes in the stellar flux variation. In the most extreme
cases, an Earth-like planet could experience circumbinary-driven
variations in the global mean land surface temperature of up to
~5 K, and variations of local daytime maximum
temperatures of up to ~12 K, on monthly timescales.
Still, habitable planets in circumbinary systems are remarkably
resilient against circumbinary driven climate variations.