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Planets are inherently three-dimensional (3D) objects. Over the past decade, significant advances in the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres have provided groundbreaking understandings of the global structures of temperature, wind, clouds, and chemical species in their atmospheres. A class of giant planets that are extremely close to their host stars, a.k.a, hot Jupiters, remain the best-characterized group of exoplanets. They are expected to be tidally locked with a permanent dayside receiving enormous stellar irradiation and a permanent nightside. This configuration gives rise to an exotic atmospheric regime that is distinctive to atmospheres in the solar system and has imprinted its features in a variety of observations. Another class of objects includes brown dwarfs, often quoted as failed stars, which are often isolated, receiving negligible stellar irradiation but powering their atmospheres by internal heat. These atmospheres are "cool" enough to be dominated by molecules, clouds, and features due to weather. Brown dwarfs share lots of similarities with directly imaged and solar-system giant planets. The question is, how like brown dwarfs are giant planets and hot Jupiters? In this seminar, I will describe current progress in understanding the 3D atmospheric nature of both classes of objects. I will review key observations, important theoretical and modeling developments, and then dive into a few atmospheric dynamical mechanisms shaping the appearance of these objects. Lastly, I will end the talk by illuminating the exciting future of exoplanet characterization and interesting future directions.
Xianyu Tan is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Physics, University of Oxford. He is interested in understanding the three-dimensional nature of planetary atmospheres using theories and numerical simulations. He obtained his B.S. at the University of Science and Technology of China, his Master at the University of Hong Kong, and his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona.