Related papers: Next-generation Exo-REM atmospheric models: applic…

Current observational data of exoplanets are providing increasing detail of their 3D atmospheric structures. As characterisation efforts expand in scope, the need to develop consistent 3D radiative-transfer methods becomes more pertinent as…

Significant uncertainty in climate prediction and cloud physics is tied to observational gaps relating to shallow scattered clouds. Addressing these challenges requires remote sensing of their three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous volumetric…

We present the first results from applying the spectral inversion technique in the cloudy L dwarf regime. Our new framework provides a flexible approach to modelling cloud opacity which can be built incrementally as the data requires, and…

Clouds are ubiquitous in extrasolar planet atmospheres and are critical to our understanding of planetary climate and chemistry. They also represent one of the greater challenges to overcome when trying to interpret transit transmission…

Clouds seem like an every-day experience. But -- do we know how clouds form on brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets? How do they look like? Can we see them? What are they composed of? Cloud formation is an old-fashioned but still…

One of the most outstanding issues in exoplanet characterization is understanding the prevalence of obscuring clouds and hazes in their atmospheres. The ability to predict the presence of clouds/hazes a priori is an important goal when…

We model the impact of non-uniform cloud cover on transit transmission spectra. Patchy clouds exist in nearly every solar system atmosphere, brown dwarfs, and transiting exoplanets. Our major findings suggest that fractional cloud coverage…

Young planetary-mass objects and brown dwarfs near the L/T spectral transition exhibit enhanced spectrophotometric variability over field brown dwarfs. Patchy clouds, auroral processes, stratospheric hot spots, and complex carbon chemistry…

Context. The surface structures and dynamics of cool stars are characterized by the presence of convective motions and turbulent flows which shape the emergent spectrum. Aims. We used realistic three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamical…

We are entering the era of high-precision and high-resolution spectroscopy of exoplanets. Such observations herald the need for robust self-consistent spectral models of exoplanetary atmospheres to investigate intricate atmospheric…

The characterization of planetary atmospheres is a daunting task, pushing current observing facilities to their limits. The next generation of high-resolution spectrographs mounted on large telescopes -- such as ESPRESSO@VLT and HIRES@ELT…

The atmospheric composition of exoplanets with masses between 2 and 10 M$_\oplus$ is poorly understood. In that regard, the sub-Neptune K2-18b, which is subject to Earth-like stellar irradiation, offers a valuable opportunity for the…

Kepler has detected numerous exoplanet transits by precise measurements of stellar light in a single visible-wavelength band. In addition to detection, the precise photometry provides phase curves of exoplanets, which can be used to study…

We present simultaneous 0.65-2.5 microns medium resolution (3300 < R < 8100) VLT/X-Shooter spectra of the young low-mass (19+/-5MJup) L-T transition object VHS 1256-1257 b, a known spectroscopic analogue of HR8799d. The companion is a prime…

Condensation clouds in substellar atmospheres have been widely inferred from spectra and photometric variability. Up until now, their horizontally averaged vertical distribution and mean particle size have been largely characterized using…

We present a new method to retrieve molecular abundances and temperature profiles from exoplanet atmosphere photometry and spectroscopy. We run millions of 1D atmosphere models in order to cover the large range of allowed parameter space,…

Near-term studies of Venus-like atmospheres with JWST promise to advance our knowledge of terrestrial planet evolution. However, the remote study of Venus in the Solar System and the ongoing efforts to characterize gaseous exoplanets both…

The detection and characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets is one of the chief goals of astrophysics for the coming decades. Imaging in reflected light is well suited for characterizing Earth-like planets, as much can be learned…

We present a new suite of atmosphere models with flexible cloud parameters to investigate the effects of clouds on brown dwarfs across the L/T transition. We fit these models to a sample of 13 objects with well-known masses, distances, and…

The occurrence of a planet transiting in front of its host star offers the opportunity to observe the planet's atmosphere filtering starlight. The fraction of occulted stellar flux is roughly proportional to the optically thick area of the…