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Interior heating drives the formation of clouds on exoplanet gas giants
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  • Orkun Temel,
  • Hakan Sert,
  • Cem Berk Senel,
  • Tim Van Hoolst,
  • Özgür Karatekin
Orkun Temel
Royal Observatory of Belgium

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Hakan Sert
Royal Observatory of Belgium
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Cem Berk Senel
Royal Observatory of Belgium
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Tim Van Hoolst
Royal Observatory of Belgium
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Özgür Karatekin
Royal Observatory of Belgium
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Abstract

We investigate the formation of water ice, ammonia ice and ammonia hydrosulphide clouds on exoplanet gas giants for various internal heat fluxes using the modified version of the PlanetWRF model, GasGiantWRF. We performed our model calculations using a newtonian thermal forcing, described by an analytical radiative model, and a cloud scheme that allows the phase exchange between different species relevant to a Jupiter-like exoplanet. We show strong variations in the concentration of water ice and ammonia ice clouds, up to four and two orders of magnitudes respectively with varying interior heat fluxes, between 1.35 and 10.8 W/m2 for a Jupiter-like exoplanet.