Exploring Magneto-Meteorology with Ultra-Hot Jupiters Phase Curves from TESS

Exoplanetary phase curves, light reflected and emitted by the planet as it orbits its star, have revealed exotic weather on these distant worlds. For example, blistering temperatures (~2000 K) on the cloudless daysides of ultra-hot Jupiters partially ionize the atmospheres, providing the magnetic field a handhold to sculpt weather. The resulting competition between transport of angular momentum, which can produce an equatorial jet, and magnetic stresses, a source of atmospheric drag, can drive the hottest region in the atmosphere back and forth across the sub-stellar point. Recent work using phase curves observed by the Kepler mission has shown that the phasing and amplitude of phase curves may therefore directly constrain the strength of an ultra-hot Jupiter’s magnetic field. Detections of ultra-hot Jupiter phase curves within TESS observations promise to expand the scope of magneto-meteorological studies. In this presentation, we explore the possibilities for constraining magnetic fields with observations of ultra-hot Jupiter phase curves from TESS.