Related papers: The curse of clouds
The best-characterized exoplanets to date are planets on close-in transiting orbits around their host stars. The high level of irradiation and transiting geometry of these objects make them ideal targets for atmospheric investigations.…
Convection and turbulence in stellar atmospheres have a significant effect on the emergent flux from late-type stars. The theoretical advancements in convection modelling over recent years have proved challenging for the observers to obtain…
Observations of exoplanet atmospheres have shown that aerosols, like in the Solar System, are common across a variety of temperatures and planet types. The formation and distribution of these aerosols are inextricably intertwined with the…
Observations of extrasolar planets were not projected to be a significant part of the Spitzer Space Telescope's mission when it was conceived and designed. Nevertheless, Spitzer was the first facility to detect thermal emission from a hot…
In recent years, numerical models that were developed for Earth have been adapted to study exoplanetary climates to understand how the broad range of possible exoplanetary properties affects their climate state. The recent discovery and…
Motivated by the observational evidence of inhomogeneous clouds in exoplanetary atmospheres, we investigate how proposed simple cloud distributions can affect atmospheric circulations and infrared emission. We simulated temperatures and…
Aerosols have been found to be nearly ubiquitous in substellar atmospheres. The precise temperature at which these aerosols begin to form in exoplanets has yet to be observationally constrained. Theoretical models and observations of muted…
We use a planetary albedo model to investigate variations in visible wavelength phase curves of exoplanets. The presence of clouds on these exoplanets significantly alters their planetary albedo spectra. We confirm that non-uniform cloud…
We present an updated analysis of Jupiter's equatorial meteorology from Cassini observations. For two months preceding the spacecraft's closest approach, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) onboard regularly imaged the atmosphere. We…
The atmosphere on the dayside of a highly irradiated close-in gas giant (also known as a hot Jupiter) absorbs a significant part of the incident stellar radiation which again gets re-emitted in the infrared wavelengths both from the day and…
A number of transiting exoplanets have featureless transmission spectra that might suggest the presence of clouds at high altitudes. A realistic cloud model is necessary to understand the atmospheric conditions under which such…
Towering storms, swirling clouds, and vortices are the cloud tops manifestation of complex weather systems shaping the atmosphere of Jupiter. We use observations from Juno's MicroWave Radiometer (MWR), the Very Large Array (VLA) and the…
In spite of their long detection history, the origin of hot Jupiters remains to be resolved. While multiple dynamical evidence suggests high-eccentricity migration is most likely, conflicts remain when considering hot Jupiters as a…
Hot Jupiters receive intense irradiation from their stellar hosts. The resulting extreme environments in their atmospheres allow us to study the conditions that drive planetary atmospheric dynamics, e.g., global-scale winds. General…
The precise characterization of terrestrial atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the utmost goals of exoplanet astronomy in the next decade. With JWST's impending launch, it is crucial we are well prepared to…
Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets has the potential to provide precise measurements of atmospheric chemical abundances, in particular of hot Jupiters whose large sizes and high temperatures make them conducive to such observations. To…
Within the next few years, GAIA and several instruments aiming at imag- ing extrasolar planets will see first light. In parallel, low mass planets are being searched around red dwarfs which offer more favourable conditions, both for radial…
The field of exoplanets is quickly expanding from just the detection of new planets and the measurement of their most basic parameters, such as mass, radius and orbital configuration, to the first measurements of their atmospheric…
Context. Clouds have already been detected in exoplanetary atmospheres. They play crucial roles in a planet's atmosphere and climate and can also create ambiguities in the determination of atmospheric parameters such as trace gas mixing…
Advancements in our understanding of exoplanetary atmospheres, from massive gas giants down to rocky worlds, depend on the constructive challenges between observations and models. We are now on a clear trajectory for improvements in…