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OATS-UNI/TS SEMINAR
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Speaker: Giovanni Vladilo (INAF - OATs)

Title: Studies of Planetary Habitability performed with Energy Balance Climate Models
Date: Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
Time: 11:30
Venue: Villa Bazzoni
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Abstract The study of the habitability of extrasolar planets is hampered by the limited possibility of characterizing the planetary surface properties by means of observations. Energy Balance Models (EBM) of planetary climate provide a flexible tool to estimate the planet surface temperature as a function of latitude and time starting from available observational data. In collaboration with the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR, Torino) we have developed a climate EBM aimed at investigating how planet temperature and habitability are influenced by variations of planetary properties, including those which are currently unconstrained by observations. The surface habitability is estimated from the climate model via the liquid water criterion. In this talk I will present the climate model and the main results that we have obtained so far from its application to studies of planetary habitability. In particular, I will discuss the influence of atmospheric pressure on the location and radial extent of the circumstellar habitable zone. I will then examine in detail a few exoplanets of special interest and, finally, I will show how our model can be applied to characterize the physical conditions of the early Earth at the epoch of the origin of life.
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Contact: Marco Fulle (OATS)