Cover Page/Proposal Summary

ROSS-99    NRA 99-OSS-01

Date Due: 5/3/99

NASA PROCEDURE FOR HANDLING PROPOSALS

This proposal shall be used and disclosed for evaluation purposes only, and a copy of this Government notice shall be applied to any reproduction or abstract thereof. Any authorized restrictive notices that the submitter places on this proposal shall also be strictly complied with. Disclosure of this proposal for any reason outside the Government evaluation purposes shall be made only to the extent authorized by the Government.

Confirmation # 00-033   Date Received: Apr 21, 1999

Proposal Type: New Proposal

Proposal Category: Atmosphere Structures and Particles

Major Equipment Proposal? No

Do you intend to submit an Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) proposal? No

Proposal Title:
The Calculation of Molecular Opacities for Brown Dwarf and Extra Solar Giant Planet Atmospheres.

Abbreviated Proposal Title:
Opacities for Brown Dwarf and Planet Atmospheres.

Principal Investigator:
Dr. Richard Stuart Freedman
(Space Physics Research Institute) MS 245-3
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
Phone: 650-604-0316   Fax: 650-604-6779   E-mail: freedman@darkstar.arc.nasa.gov

SignatureDate
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Co-Investigators and Collaborators:
Type    Name    Affiliation    E-mail
Sci Collab   Dr. Mark S. Marley   New Mexico State University   mmarley@nmsu.edu
Sci Collab   Dr. Didier Saumon   Vanderbilt University   dsaumon@cactus.phy.Vanderbilt.Edu
Sci Collab   Dr. Adam S. Burrows   University of Arizona   burrows@jupiter.as.arizona.edu
Sci Collab   Dr. Jonathan I. Lunine   Univerity of Arizona   lunine@lpl.arizona.edu
Sci Collab   Dr. William B. Hubbard   Univerity of Arizona   hubbard@lpl.arizona.edu
Sci Collab   Dr. Christopher P. McKay   NASA Ames Research Center   cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov


Proposal Summary:

I plan to produce detailed simulations of the molecular opacity and spectra of brown dwarfs and extra solar giant planets. This data will be used in conjuction with modeling done by my collaborators in order to interpret the observations of these objects that are just now becoming available, and to thus better understand the structure and dynamics of their atmospheres. I also plan to use data from the laboratory and literature to extend the range of the currently available datasets of molecular opacity. These opacities will also be provided in a form suitable for use by modelers of protoplanetary disks and planetary formation, and will cover a range of temperatures from the lowest found in space to the boundary between brown dwarfs and the coolest stars. The proposal will outline the steps that will be taken to create and extend the opacity database, and will discuss the computational techniques that will be developed to facilitate the creation of opacity databases that include tens or even hundreds of millions of lines. These numbers arise because of the large number of lines that begin to appear in species such as water, and other molecules at the high temperatures that occur in the lowest layers of brown dwarfs and, in the atmospheres of giant planets in close orbits around their primaries.