Spatially Resolved Modeling of Optical Albedos for a Sample of Six Hot Jupiters

Abstract

Optical secondary eclipse measurements made by Kepler reveal a diverse set of geometric albedos for hot Jupiters with equilibrium temperatures between 1550 and 1700 K. The presence or absence of high-altitude condensates, such as Mg₂SiO₄, Fe, Al₂O₃, and TiO₂, can significantly alter optical albedos, but these clouds are expected to be confined to localized regions in the atmospheres of these tidally locked planets. Here, we present 3D general circulation models and corresponding cloud and albedo maps for six hot Jupiters with measured optical albedos in this temperature range. We find that the observed optical albedos of K2-31b and K2-107b are best matched by either cloud-free models or models with relatively compact cloud layers, while Kepler-8b’s and Kepler-17b’s optical albedos can be matched by moderately extended (f_(sed) = 0.1) parametric cloud models. HATS-11b has a high optical albedo, corresponding to models with bright Mg₂SiO₄ clouds extending to very low pressures (f_(sed) = 0.03). We are unable to reproduce Kepler-7b’s high albedo, as our models predict that the dayside will be dominated by dark Al₂O₃ clouds at most longitudes. We compare our parametric cloud model with a microphysical cloud model. We find that even after accounting for the 3D thermal structure, no single cloud model can explain the full range of observed albedos within the sample. We conclude that a better knowledge of the vertical mixing profiles, cloud radiative feedback, cloud condensate properties, and atmospheric metallicities is needed in order to explain the unexpected diversity of albedos in this temperature range.