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Theoretical frameworks for reflection and emission spectroscopy of exoplanet surfaces are becoming increasingly important for the characterization of rocky exoplanets, especially with the rapid growth of the detected exoplanet population…
Reflected light curves observed for exoplanets indicate bright clouds at some of them. We estimate how the light curve and total stellar heating of a planet depend on forward and backward scattering in the clouds based on Pioneer and…
We predict how a remote observer would see the brightness variations of giant planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn as they orbit their central stars. We model the geometry of Jupiter, Saturn and Saturn's rings for varying orbital and…
The surface reflectance of planetary regoliths may increase dramatically towards zero phase angle, a phenomenon known as the opposition effect (OE). Two physical processes that are thought to be the dominant contributors to the brightness…
Due to its proximity to Earth, Jupiter of the Solar System serves as a unique case study for gas-giant exoplanets. In the current study, we perform fits of ab initio, reflective, semi-infinite, homogeneous model atmospheres to 61 phase…
In this paper, we characterize the morphology of the disk-integrated phase functions of satellites and rings around the giant planets of our Solar System. We find that the shape of the phase function is accurately represented by a…
It is challenging to measure the starlight reflected from exoplanets because of the extreme contrast with their host stars. For hot Jupiters, this contrast is in the range of $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-4}$, depending on their albedo, radius and…
We present the analysis of a full-orbit, spectroscopic phase curve of the ultra hot Jupiter WASP-18b, obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure the planet's normalized day-night contrast as >0.96 in…
We present phase curves of Jupiter from 0-140 degrees as measured in multiple optical bandpasses by Cassini/ISS during the Millennium flyby of Jupiter in late 2000 to early 2001. Phase curves are of interest for studying the energy balance…
The two major factors contributing to the opposition brightening of Saturn's rings are i) the intrinsic brightening of particles due to coherent backscattering and/or shadow-hiding on their surfaces, and ii) the reduced interparticle…
First generation optical coronagraphic telescopes will obtain images of cool gas and ice giant exoplanets around nearby stars. The albedo spectra of exoplanets at planet-star separations larger than about 1 AU are dominated by reflected…
The depth of a secondary eclipse contains information of both the thermally emitted light component of a hot Jupiter and the reflected light component. If the dayside atmosphere of the planet is assumed to be isothermal, it is possible to…
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…
Hot Jupiters are a class of extrasolar planet that orbit their parent stars at very short distances. Due to their close proximity, they are expected to be tidally locked, which can lead to a large temperature difference between their day…
Out of the known transiting extrasolar planets, the majority are gas giants orbiting their host star at close proximity. Both theoretical and observational studies support the hypothesis that such bodies emit significant amounts of flux…
We collect well-measured opposition surge properties for many icy bodies orbiting the Sun (mostly from our own observations) plus for many icy moons, resulting in a data base of surface and orbital properties for 52 icy bodies. (1) We put…
The Cassini cameras have captured the opposition effect in Saturn rings with a high radial resolution at phase angles down to 0.01o in the entire main ring system. We derive phase functions from 0.01 to 25 degrees of phase angle in the…
Identifying liquid water on the surface of planets is a high priority, as this traditionally defines habitability. One proposed signature of oceans is specular reflection ("glint"), which increases the apparent albedo of a planet at…
We provide measurements of the absolute reflectivity of Jupiter and Saturn along their central meridians in filters covering a wide range of visible and near-infrared wavelengths (from 0.38 to 1.7 $\mu$m) that are not often presented in the…
Optical phase curves of hot Jupiters can reveal global scattering properties. We implement a Bayesian inference framework for optical phase curves with flux contributions from: reflected light from a potentially inhomogeneous atmosphere,…