Exoplanet atmospheres

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Spatial Variations of Jovian Tropospheric Ammonia via Ground‐Based Imaging

Earth and Space Science American Geophysical Union (AGU) 11:8 (2024)

Authors:

SM Hill, PGJ Irwin, C Alexander, JH Rogers

Abstract:

AbstractCurrent understanding of the ammonia distribution in Jupiter's atmosphere is provided by observations from major ground‐based facilities and spacecraft, and analyzed with sophisticated retrieval models that recover high fidelity information, but are limited in spatial and temporal coverage. Here we show that the ammonia abundance in Jupiter's upper troposphere, which tracks the overturning atmospheric circulation, can be simply, but reliably determined from continuum‐divided ammonia and methane absorption‐band images made with a moderate‐sized Schmidt‐Cassegrain telescope (SCT). In 2020–2021, Jupiter was imaged in the 647‐nm ammonia absorption band and adjacent continuum bands with a 0.28‐m SCT, demonstrating that the spatially resolved ammonia optical depth could be determined with such a telescope. In 2022–2023, a 619 nm methane‐band filter was added to provide a constant reference against which to correct the ammonia abundances (column‐averaged mole fraction) for cloud opacity variations. These 0.28‐m SCT results are compared with observations from: (a) the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (b) the TEXES mid‐infrared spectrometer used on NASA's InfraRed Telescope Facility; and (c) the Gemini telescopes, and are shown to provide reliable maps of ammonia abundance. Meridional and longitudinal features are examined, including the Equatorial Zone (EZ) ammonia enhancement, the North Equatorial Belt depletion, depletion above the Great Red Spot, and longitudinal enhancements in the northern EZ. This work demonstrates meaningful ammonia monitoring can be achieved with small telescopes that can complement spacecraft and major ground‐based facility observations.
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HD152843 b & c: the masses and orbital periods of a sub-Neptune and a superpuff Neptune

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 532:4 (2024) 4632-4644

Authors:

BA Nicholson, S Aigrain, NL Eisner, M Cretignier, O Barragán, L Kaye, J Taylor, J Owen, A Mortier, L Affer, W Boschin, LA Buchhave, A Collier Cameron, M Damasso, L Di Fabrizio, V DiTomasso, X Dumusque, A Ghedina, DW Latham, M López-Morales, V Lorenzi, AF Martínez Fiorenzano, E Molinari, M Pedani, M Pinamonti, K Rice, A Sozzetti
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Identifying and fitting eclipse maps of exoplanets with cross-validation

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 532:4 (2024) 4350-4368

Authors:

Mark Hammond, Neil T Lewis, Sasha Boone, Xueqing Chen, João M Mendonça, Vivien Parmentier, Jake Taylor, Taylor Bell, Leonardo dos Santos, Nicolas Crouzet, Laura Kreidberg, Michael Radica, Michael Zhang
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Correcting non-common path aberrations with deep learning and ERIS on VLT

Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics 13101 (2024) 131013i-131013i-5

Authors:

R Elliot Meyer, Matthias Tecza, Alvaro Menduina Fernandez, Niranjan Thatte
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Design and testing of a low-resolution NIR spectrograph for the Exoplanet Climate Infrared Telescope

Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics 13096 (2024) 13096a5-13096a5-13

Authors:

Lee Bernard, Johnathan Gamaunt, Logan Jensen, Andrea Bocchieri, Nat Butler, Quentin Changeat, Azzurra D'Alessandro, Billy Edwards, Conor Earley, Qian Gong, John Hartley, Kyle Helson, Daniel P Kelly, Kanchita Klangboonkrong, Annalies Kleyheeg, Nikole Lewis, Steven Li, Michael Line, Stephen F Maher, Ryan McClelland, Laddawan R Miko, Lorenzo V Mugnai, Peter Nagler, C Barth Netterfield, Vivien Parmentier, Enzo Pascale, Jennifer Patience, Tim Rehm, Javier Romualdez, Subhajit Sarkar, Paul Scowen, Greg Tucker, Augustyn Waczynski, Ingo Waldmann
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