Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, University of Chicago
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TAP Planetary Atmospheres Initiative Computational Workshop
Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, University of Chicago
Visit Dates: Oct 26 - Oct 30, 2025
Workshop Title: Introduction to MELT and SMINT: Modeling of Small-planet Interior Compositions
Abstract/overview:
Modeling the interiors of small planets gives us a unique window into their formation building blocks and the processes shaping their present-day atmospheres. In this workshop, I will present MELT and SMINT, two models that can be used to either predict potential small-planet compositions, or contextualize atmosphere observations of these worlds. The workshop examples will revolve around assessments of the potential atmospheres on planets in the L 98-59 system.
Workshop outline:
- Big-picture introduction to the workshop: objectives, workflow (MELT+SMINT)
- Introduction to MELT: energy balance model, purpose and use cases
- introduction to SMINT: interior-atmosphere models, mass-radius relationships, compositional inference, impact on observation design, options offered in SMINT
- Installation of MELT following instructions, debugging
Recommended reading:
- for MELT:
- Barr et al. 2018
- Peterson et al. 2023
- for SMINT:
- Piaulet-Ghorayeb et al. 2024
Links/installation instructions:
Please, prior to the workshop, install (preferentially each on a clean conda environment), and following the instructions in the README files, each of the two modules:
Jupyter notebooks that will serve as the basis for the workshop example will be shared prior to the workshop.