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Condensation clouds in substellar atmospheres have been widely inferred from spectra and photometric variability. Up until now, their horizontally averaged vertical distribution and mean particle size have been largely characterized using models, one of which is the eddy diffusion-sedimentation model from Ackerman & Marley (2001) that relies on a sedimentation efficiency parameter, $f_{rm sed}$, to determine the vertical extent of clouds in the atmosphere. However, the physical processes controlling the vertical structure of clouds in substellar atmospheres are not well understood. In this work, we derive trends in $f_{rm sed}$ across a large range of eddy diffusivities ($K_{zz}$), gravities, material properties, and cloud formation pathways by fitting cloud distributions calculated by a more detailed cloud microphysics model. We find that $f_{rm sed}$ is dependent on $K_{zz}$, but not gravity, when $K_{zz}$ is held constant. $f_{rm sed}$ is most sensitive to the nucleation rate of cloud particles, as determined by material properties like surface energy and molecular weight. High surface energy materials form fewer, larger cloud particles, leading to large $f_{rm sed}$ ($>$1), and vice versa for materials with low surface energy. For cloud formation via heterogeneous nucleation, $f_{rm sed}$ is sensitive to the condensation nuclei flux and radius, connecting cloud formation in substellar atmospheres to the objects formation environments and other atmospheric aerosols. These insights could lead to improved cloud models that help us better understand substellar atmospheres. For example, we demonstrate that $f_{rm sed}$ could increase with increasing cloud base depth in an atmosphere, shedding light on the nature of the brown dwarf L/T transition.
Today, we know ~4330 exoplanets orbiting their host stars in ~3200 planetary systems. The diversity of these exoplanets is large, and none of the known exoplanets is a twin to any of the solar system planets, nor is any of the known extrasolar planet
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Clouds seem like an every-day experience. But -- do we know how clouds form on brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets? How do they look like? Can we see them? What are they composed of? Cloud formation is an old-fashioned but still outstanding problem
Deciphering the role of clouds is central to our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres, as they have a direct impact on the temperature and pressure structure, and observational properties of the planet. Super-hot Jupiters occupy a temperature regim
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