Clouds are a ubiquitous feature of dense planetary atmospheres, playing key roles in radiative balance, volatile cycling, atmospheric chemistry, and climate. In the Cloud Lab, we use our understanding of cloud microphysics — when, where, and how clouds form and the resultant properties of those clouds — to better understand a wide array of planetary atmospheres both inside and outside our solar system.  The primary part of this talk will focus on laboratory studies towards understanding clouds in the atmospheres of sub-Neptune exoplanets. The atmospheres and underlying surfaces of these planets are of tremendous interest, but the presence of clouds and hazes makes direct observation and characterization challenging. We tackle this problem with a unique, but Earth driven, approach: leveraging lab-based terrestrial instrumentation and knowledge to study how exoplanet cloud analogs scatter and polarize light across a wide range of simulated atmospheric conditions. I will discuss our target planet, GJ 1214 b, a sub-Neptune with an equilibrium temperature of 500 K, the potassium chloride (KCl) and zinc sulfide (ZnS) clouds in its atmosphere, the Exoplanet Cloud Ensemble Scattering System (ExCESS) and experimental scattering phase curves we’ve collected, implications for our findings thus far, and where this work is headed.  I will also briefly discuss some of the other planetary atmospheres we study through Earth driven approaches such as the use of droplet freezing arrays to study water ice nucleation and volatile cycling in the transient lunar atmosphere (proposed to have existed 3.5 billion years ago), single column models to better understand methane-ethane-nitrogen cloud and precipitation formation on Saturn’s moon Titan, and the use of ElectroDynamic Balances (EDBs) for the study of aerosol chemistry and the nucleation and growth of cloud particles across a myriad of atmospheres.

Studying planetary atmospheres near and far through earth based means

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ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.