  WASP-96b is a hot Saturn exoplanet, with an equilibrium temperature well
within the regime of thermodynamically expected extensive cloud formation.
Prior observations with Hubble/WFC3, Spitzer/IRAC, and VLT/FORS2 have been
combined into a single spectra for which retrievals suggest a cold but
cloud-free atmosphere. Recently, the planet was observed with the James Webb
Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the Early Release Observations (ERO). 1D
profiles are extracted from the 3D GCM expeRT/MITgcm results and used as input
for a kinetic, non-equilibrium model to study the formation of mineral cloud
particles of mixed composition. The ARCiS retrieval framework is applied to the
pre-JWST WASP-96b transit spectra to investigate the apparent contradiction
between cloudy models and assumed cloud-free transit spectra. Clouds are
predicted to be ubiquitous throughout the atmosphere of WASP-96b. Silicate
materials contribute between 40% and 90%, hence, also metal oxides contribute
with up to 40% in the low-pressure regimes that effect the spectra. We explore
how to match these cloudy models with currently available atmospheric transit
spectra. A reduced vertical mixing acts to settle clouds to deeper in the
atmosphere, and an increased cloud particles porosity reduces the opacity of
clouds in the near-IR and optical region. Both these effects allow for clearer
molecular features to be observed, while still allowing clouds to be in the
atmosphere. The atmosphere of WASP-96b is unlikely to be cloud free. Also
retrievals of HST, Spitzer and VLT spectra show that multiple cloudy solutions
reproduce the data. JWST observations will be affected by clouds, where within
even the NIRISS wavelength range the cloud top pressure varies by an order of
magnitude. The long wavelength end of NIRSpec and short end of MIRI may probe
atmospheric asymmetries between the limbs of the terminator on WASP-96b.
