The Coupled Impacts of Atmospheric Composition and Obliquity on the Climate Dynamics of TRAPPIST-1e

Abstract

Planets in multiplanet systems are expected to migrate inward as near-resonant chains, thus allowing them to undergo gravitational planet–planet interactions and possibly maintain a nonzero obliquity. The TRAPPIST-1 system is in such a near-resonant configuration, making it plausible that TRAPPIST-1e has a nonzero obliquity. In this work, we use the ExoCAM general circulation model to study the possible climates of TRAPPIST-1e at varying obliquities and atmospheric compositions. We vary obliquity from 0° to 90° and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide from 0.0004 bar (modern Earth-like) to 1 bar. We find that models with a higher obliquity are hotter overall and have a smaller day–night temperature contrast than the lower-obliquity models, which is consistent with previous studies. Most significantly, the superrotating high-altitude jet becomes subrotating at high obliquity, thus impacting cloud and surface temperature patterns. As the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the climate of TRAPPIST-1e becomes hotter, cloudier, and less variable. From modeled thermal phase curves, we find that the impact of obliquity could potentially have observable consequences due to the effect of cloud coverage on the outgoing longwave radiation.