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We used 0.85 - 5.1 micron 2006 observations by Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) to constrain the unusual vertical structure and compositions of cloud layers in Saturn's south polar region, the site of a powerful…

Neptune remains a mysterious world that deserves further exploration and is a high-priority objective for a future planetary mission in order to better understand the formation and evolution of ice giant planets. We have developed a coupled…

The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen (D/H ratio) of Solar System bodies is an important clue to their formation histories. Here we fit a Neptunian atmospheric model to Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) high spectral resolution…

Observations of cooler atmospheres of super-Earths and Neptune sized objects often show flat transmission spectra. The most likely cause of this trend is the presence of aerosols (i.e. clouds and hazes) in the atmospheres of such objects.…

The Ice Giants Uranus and Neptune have hydrogen-based atmospheres with several constituents that condense in their cold upper atmospheres. A small number of bright cloud systems observed in both planets are good candidates for moist…

We present a new framework for constructing agnostic and yet physical models for planetary interiors and apply it to Uranus and Neptune. Unlike previous research that either impose rigid assumptions or rely on simplified empirical profiles,…

Emission from the molecular ion H$_3^+$ is a powerful diagnostic of the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, but it remains undetected at Neptune. In search of this emission, we present near-infrared spectral observations of…

The super-Neptune exoplanet WASP-107b is an exciting target for atmosphere characterization. It has an unusually large atmospheric scale height and a small, bright host star, raising the possibility of precise constraints on its current…

We present the first comprehensive look at the $0.35-5$ $\mu$m transmission spectrum of the warm ($\sim 800$ K) Neptune HAT-P-11b derived from thirteen individual transits observed using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Along with…

Imaging and spectroscopy of Neptune's thermal infrared emission is used to assess seasonal changes in Neptune's zonal mean temperatures between Voyager-2 observations (1989, heliocentric longitude Ls=236) and southern summer solstice (2005,…

Recently, properties of exoplanet atmospheres have been constrained via multi-wavelength transit observation, which measures an apparent decrease in stellar brightness during planetary transit in front of its host star (called transit…

Although Neptunian-sized (2 - 5 R$_{Earth}$) planets appear to be extremely common in the Galaxy, many mysteries remain about their overall nature. To date, only 11 Neptunian-sized planets have had their atmospheres spectroscopically…

Aptly named, ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune contain significant amounts of water. While this water cannot be present near the cloud tops, it must be abundant in the deep interior. We investigate the likelihood of a liquid water ocean…

Keck near-infrared images of Neptune from UT 26 July 2007 show that the cloud feature typically observed within a few degrees of Neptune's south pole had split into a pair of bright spots. A careful determination of disk center places the…

Super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are the most abundant types of planets among the ~3500 confirmed exoplanets, and are expected to exhibit a wide variety of atmospheric compositions. Recent transmission spectra of super-Earths and…

We present results of an investigation into the formation of nitrogen-bearing molecules in the atmosphere of Titan. We extend a previous model (Li et al. 2015, 2016) to cover the region below the tropopause, so the new model treats the…

Transit surveys indicate that there is a deficit of Neptune-sized planets on close-in orbits. If this ``Neptune desert' is entirely cleared out by atmospheric mass loss, then planets at its upper edge should only be marginally stable…

Raman scattering by H$_2$ in Neptune's atmosphere has significant effects on its reflectivity for $\lambda <$ 0.5 $\mu$m, producing baseline decreases of $\sim$ 20% in a clear atmosphere and $\sim$ 10% in a hazy atmosphere. Here we present…

We present updated non-adiabatic and inhomogeneous evolution models for Uranus and Neptune, employing an interior composition of methane, ammonia, water, and rocks. Following formation trends of the gas giants, Uranus and Neptune formation…

A comprehensive exploration of Uranus and Neptune is essential to understand the formation and evolution of the giant planets, in particular, solar system, in general, and, by extension, a vast population of exoplanets. Though core…