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Mechanisms of Superrotation in Slowly Rotating and Tidally Locked Planets

  • Authors: Quentin Nicolas, Geoffrey K. Vallis

Quentin Nicolas and Geoffrey K. Vallis 2026 The Planetary Science Journal 7 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 5.

Equilibrium equatorial jet speed in tidally locked planets. (a) Upper-level zonal-mean zonal wind speed ﹩\overline{{u}_{1}}﹩ averaged 2S–2N, as a function of RoT and Trad. (b) Same as panel (a), multiplied by 2RoT. In both panels, the hatched region marks simulations for which ﹩\overline{{u}_{1}}﹩ switches sign more than 10% of the time in the last 700 rotation periods of the simulation. The thick black line marks the transition from superrotation to subrotation. In panel (b), filled symbols show approximate parameters for known tidally locked terrestrial planets: GJ1132b (square), LHS 1140 b (cross), Trappist 1b (plus sign), Trappist 1 c (diamond), Trappist 1d (circle), 55 Cancri e (downward-pointing triangle), Kepler 10b (upward-pointing triangle). Open symbols show approximate parameters for known hot Jupiters: HD 189733b (squares), HD 209458b (cross), HD 149026b (plus sign), HAT-P-7b (diamond), WASP-18b (circle), WASP-12b (downward-pointing triangle). Planets that fall outside of the regime diagram are brought to the nearest value; arrows are used to indicate planets for which Trad < 5 or RoT > 20. See Appendix D for details on the parameters and estimation.

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