Paper detail

Completely Colorblind: Advances in Gray Techniques and Applications to Planets Near and Far

Gray models, which replace spectrally-resolved opacities with a wavelength independent mean opacity, are currently seeing wide and diverse application. In this brief review, we discuss both the history of gray techniques as well as recent applications of gray models, with an emphasis on planetary atmospheres. Methods and results for generating mean opacities are summarized. We present examples where gray radiative transfer tools are incorporated into three-dimensional atmospheric circulation models. Gray techniques are also useful for problems in comparative climatology, and we inter-compare results from several generalized gray models as applied to the computation of convective fluxes in planetary atmospheres. Finally, we provide examples where future progress can be made in the development of gray models.