Heating of an inflated giant planet

A giant planet can also remain inflated when power is deposited sufficiently deep to alter its internal energy budget. Candidate sources include tidal heating, Joule heating by wind-driven currents, and dissipation of circulation-driven mechanical energy. The depth and efficiency of deposition matter, as discussed in models of hot-Jupiter heating.

Atmospheric winds across a magnetic field can induce electric currents. Their Ohmic heating converts mechanical energy into heat, at local rate $q=\mathbf{J}\cdot \mathbf{E}=J^2/\sigma$ in the simplest resistive description. To maintain hot-Jupiter radius inflation, current paths and deposited heat must influence the deep interior; dissipation restricted to optically thin upper layers need not maintain the planet's entropy.