Anjali
PietteShe/Her

Anjali Piette studies the atmospheres of exoplanets, including their characterization and links to planetary surfaces/interiors. She is especially interested in what the emission spectra of these atmospheres can tell us about their temperature profiles, energy transport, potential surface/interior properties, and atmospheric chemistry/clouds.

 

Anjali A. A. Piette

Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow
Washington, DC

language Personal Website email Email Me phone 202-478-8942

Overview

Anjali Piette studies the atmospheres of a wide range of exoplanets—from temperate low-mass planets to highly irradiated gas giants and isolated brown dwarfs. She uses self-consistent atmospheric models to understand how various physical processes affect the temperature profile and emission spectrum of the atmosphere. She also uses atmospheric retrievals to understand what we can learn about these planets with observations from current and upcoming facilities, including JWST.

Piette's current work focuses on the atmospheres and atmosphere/surface/interior interactions in sub-Neptune exoplanets. Super-Earths and mini-Neptunes (also known as sub-Neptunes) are the most common type of exoplanets discovered to date. However, with no solar-system analog and a wide range of possible internal structures and atmospheric states, their nature remains mysterious. The atmospheres of sub-Neptunes can provide an observational window into their inner conditions and processes. However, a detailed understanding of the interactions between the atmosphere and planetary surface/interior is required to infer surface/interior properties observationally. 

Piette's research aims to shed light on the conditions in these planets by investigating the thermodynamic, radiative, and chemical roles of their atmospheres in atmosphere-surface interactions.

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