Tuesday, June 10 - Plenary Session

Name:  Daniel Apai

Affiliation:  University of Arizona

Title:  The Physics and Chemistry of Brown Dwarf Clouds: Results from HST and Spitzer Phase Mapping Programs

Abstract:
Condensate clouds play important roles in setting the physical and thermal structures of photospheres of brown dwarfs, directly imaged exoplanets, and hot transiting exoplanets. Rotational phase mapping of brown dwarfs provides exciting new insights into the physical and chemical properties of condensate clouds in ultracool atmospheres. Here I will show new results from ongoing HST and Spitzer rotational mapping projects, which provide very high quality spectrally and temporally resolved data of rotating brown dwarfs, obtained simultaneously at multiple atmospheric depths. I will summarize results from several studies that address the nature and properties of brown dwarf clouds as a function of spectral type and other properties. Finally, I will show first results from the Spitzer Cycle-9 Exploration Science program Extrasolar Storms that uses multi-epoch observations of complete rotations to study the evolution of cloud coverage in brown dwarf photospheres, thus providing detailed views of atmospheric dynamics in these ultracool atmospheres.