3D Radiative Transfer for Exoplanet Atmospheres. gCMCRT: A GPU-accelerated MCRT Code
Abstract
Radiative transfer (RT) is a key component for investigating atmospheres of planetary bodies. With the 3D nature of exoplanet atmospheres being important in giving rise to their observable properties, accurate and fast 3D methods are required to be developed to meet future multidimensional and temporal data sets. We develop an open-source GPU RT code, gCMCRT, a Monte Carlo RT forward model for general use in planetary atmosphere RT problems. We aim to automate the post-processing pipeline, starting from direct global circulation model (GCM) output to synthetic spectra. We develop albedo, emission, and transmission spectra modes for 3D and 1D input structures. We include capability to use correlated-k and high-resolution opacity tables, the latter of which can be Doppler-shifted inside the model. We post-process results from several GCM groups, including ExoRad, SPARC/MITgcm THOR, UK Met Office UM, Exo-FMS, and the Rauscher model. Users can therefore take advantage of desktop and HPC GPU computing solutions. gCMCRT is well suited for post-processing large GCM model grids produced by members of the community and for high-resolution 3D investigations.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 2022
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2110.15640
- Bibcode:
- 2022ApJ...929..180L
- Keywords:
-
- Exoplanet atmospheres;
- Radiative transfer;
- Hot Jupiters;
- High resolution spectroscopy;
- 487;
- 1335;
- 753;
- 2096;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ 29/10/21, revised post-reviewer comments 18/3/22