Related papers: The Open-Source Photochem Code: A General Chemical…
With the discovery of ever smaller and colder exoplanets, terrestrial worlds with hazy atmospheres must be increasingly considered. Our Solar System's Titan is a prototypical hazy planet, whose atmosphere may be representative of a large…
Modeling the outflow of planetary atmospheres is important for understanding the evolution of exoplanet systems and for interpreting their observations. Modern theoretical models of exoplanet atmospheres become increasingly detailed and…
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…
In the context of future Venusian missions, it is crucial to improve our understanding of Venus upper atmosphere through 3D modeling, notably for spacecraft orbit computation. This study compares three General Circulation Models (GCMs) of…
Given the forthcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which will allow observ- ing exoplanet atmospheres with unprecedented signal-over-noise ratio, spectral coverage and spatial resolution, the uncertainties in the…
This dissertation as a whole aims to provide means to better understand hot-Jupiter planets through observing, performing thermochemical calculations, and modeling their atmospheres. We used Spitzer multi-wavelength secondary-eclipse…
Aims. To create a retrieval framework which encapsulates the 3D nature of exoplanet atmospheres, and to apply it to observed emission phase curve and transmission spectra of hot Jupiter exoplanet WASP-43b. Methods. We present our 3D…
For solar-system objects, ultraviolet spectroscopy has been critical in identifying sources for stratospheric heating and measuring the abundances of a variety of hydrocarbon and sulfur-bearing species, produced via photochemical…
Over the last decade, precise exoplanet transmission spectroscopy has revealed the atmospheres of dozens of exoplanets, driven largely by observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. One major discovery has been the ubiquity of…
We have developed a 1D planetary atmosphere model that solves in a self-consistent manner the evolution of temperature and disequilibrium chemistry in the vertical direction. Thermochemical kinetics is based on a reaction network built from…
Previous generation of instruments have the opportunity to discover thousands of extra-solar planets and more will come with the current and future planet-search missions. In order to go one step further in the characterization of…
Context: The thermal and chemical structures of the upper atmospheres of planets crucially influence losses to space and must be understood to constrain the effects of losses on atmospheric evolution. Aims: We develop a 1D first-principles…
Planetary climates are strongly affected by planetary orbital parameters such as obliquity, eccentricity, and precession. In exoplanetary systems, exo-terrestrial planets should have various obliquities. High-obliquity planets would have…
Very little experimental work has been done to explore the properties of photochemical hazes formed in atmospheres with very different compositions or temperatures than that of the outer solar system or of early Earth. With extrasolar…
Inferring the climate and surface conditions of terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zone is a major goal for the field of exoplanet science. This pursuit will require both statistical analyses of the population of habitable planets as…
Atmospheric chemistry models have shown molecular oxygen can build up in CO2-dominated atmospheres on potentially habitable exoplanets without an input of life. Existing models typically assume a surface pressure of 1 bar. Here we present…
UV radiation can induce photochemical processes in exoplanet atmospheres and produce haze particles. Recent observations suggest that haze and/or cloud layers could be present in the upper atmospheres of exoplanets. Haze particles play an…
In warm (equilibrium temperature <1000 K) gas giant exoplanet atmospheres, the observation of trace species in abundances deviating from thermochemical equilibrium predictions could be used as an indicator of disequilibrium chemical…
It remains to be ascertained whether sub-Neptune exoplanets primarily possess hydrogen-rich atmospheres or whether a population of H$_2$O-rich "water worlds" lurks in their midst. Addressing this question requires improved modeling of…
Characterizing exoplanetary atmospheres via Bayesian retrievals requires assuming some chemistry model, such as thermochemical equilibrium or parameterized abundances. The higher-resolution data offered by upcoming telescopes enables more…