Related papers: Enabling Robust Exoplanet Atmospheric Retrievals w…
Exoplanet transmission spectra provide rich information about the chemical composition, clouds and temperature structure of exoplanet atmospheres. Most exoplanet transmission spectra only span infrared wavelengths ($\gtrsim$ 1 $\rm{\mu…
Context: Before JWST, telescope observations were not sensitive enough to constrain the nature of clouds in exo-atmospheres. Recent observations, however, have inferred cloud signatures as well as haze-enhanced scattering slopes motivating…
To increase the sample size of future atmospheric characterization efforts, we build on the planetary infrared excess (PIE) technique that has been proposed as a means to detect and characterize the thermal spectra of transiting and…
Spectral retrieval techniques are currently our best tool to interpret the observed exoplanet atmospheric data. Said techniques retrieve the optimal atmospheric components and parameters by identifying the best fit to an observed…
Techniques to retrieve the atmospheric properties of exoplanets via direct observation of their reflected light have often been limited in scope due to computational constraints imposed by the forward-model calculations. We have developed a…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will offer the first opportunity to characterize terrestrial exoplanets with sufficient precision to identify high mean molecular weight atmospheres, and TRAPPIST-1's seven known transiting Earth-sized…
Cross-correlations techniques offer an alternative method to search for molecular species in JWST observations of exoplanet atmospheres. In a previous article, we applied cross-correlation functions for the first time to JWST NIRSpec/G395H…
Traditionally, ground-based spectrophotometric observations probing transiting exoplanet atmospheres have employed a linear map between comparison and target star light curves (e.g. via differential spectrophotometry) to correct for…
Upcoming space-based coronagraphic instruments in the next decade will perform reflected light spectroscopy and photometry of cool, directly imaged extrasolar giant planets. We are developing a new atmospheric retrieval methodology to help…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will revolutionize our understanding of exoplanets with transit spectroscopy of a wide range of mature planets close to their host stars ($<$2 AU) and with coronagraphic imaging and spectroscopy of…
Solving inverse problems is central to geosciences and remote sensing. Radiative transfer models (RTMs) represent mathematically the physical laws which govern the phenomena in remote sensing applications (forward models). The numerical…
A number of transiting, potentially habitable Earth-sized exoplanets have recently been detected around several nearby M dwarf stars. These worlds represent important targets for atmospheric characterization for the upcoming NASA James Webb…
A key goal of exoplanet spectroscopy is to measure atmospheric properties, such as abundances of chemical species, in order to connect them to our understanding of atmospheric physics and planet formation. In this new era of high-quality…
The use of Gaussian processes (GPs) as models for astronomical time series datasets has recently become almost ubiquitous, given their ease of use and flexibility. GPs excel in particular at marginalization over the stellar signal in cases…
Gaussian process regression is a widespread tool used to mitigate stellar correlated noise in radial velocity time series. It is particularly useful to search for and determine the properties of signals induced by small-size, low-mass…
Earth observation (EO) by airborne and satellite remote sensing and in-situ observations play a fundamental role in monitoring our planet. In the last decade, machine learning and Gaussian processes (GPs) in particular has attained…
Our ability to observe, detect, and characterize exoplanetary atmospheres has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years, aided largely by developments in astronomical instrumentation; improvements in data analysis techniques; and an…
Eclipse exoplanet spectroscopy has yielded detection of H_2O, CH_4, CO_2 and CO in the atmosphere of hot jupiters and neptunes. About 40 large terrestrial planets are announced or confirmed, two of which are transiting, and another deemed…
To date, the ability for observers to reveal the composition or thermal structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere has rested on two techniques: high-contrast direct imaging and time-series observations of transiting exoplanets. The former is…
Retrieving the physical parameters from spectroscopic observations of exoplanets is key to understanding their atmospheric properties. Exoplanetary atmospheric retrievals are usually based on approximate Bayesian inference and rely on…