Surface variability of short-wavelength radiation and temperature on exoplanets around M dwarfs

The enhanced albedo effect of clouds is especially important for exoplanets in the habitable zones around M dwarfs that likely have fixed substellar regions and substantial cloud coverage. Here, we carry out mesoscale model simulations with 3 km spatial resolution driven by the initial and boundary conditions in a 3D GCM and find that it could significantly underestimate the spatial variability of both the incident short-wavelength radiation and the temperature at planet surface.

Our findings suggest that mesoscale models with cloud-resolving capability be considered for future studies of exoplanet climate.