Solar system

Abstract:

A dedicated mission to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres represents a major milestone in our quest to understand our place in the universe by placing our Solar System in context and by addressing the suitability of planets for the presence of life. EChO-the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory-is a mission concept specifically geared for this purpose. EChO will provide simultaneous, multi-wavelength spectroscopic observations on a stable platform that will allow very long exposures. The use of passive cooling, few moving parts and well established technology gives a low-risk and potentially long-lived mission. EChO will build on observations by Hubble, Spitzer and ground-based telescopes, which discovered the first molecules and atoms in exoplanetary atmospheres. However, EChO's configuration and specifications are designed to study a number of systems in a consistent manner that will eliminate the ambiguities affecting prior observations. EChO will simultaneously observe a broad enough spectral region-from the visible to the mid-infrared-to constrain from one single spectrum the temperature structure of the atmosphere, the abundances of the major carbon and oxygen bearing species, the expected photochemically-produced species and magnetospheric signatures. The spectral range and resolution are tailored to separate bands belonging to up to 30 molecules and retrieve the composition and temperature structure of planetary atmospheres. The target list for EChO includes planets ranging from Jupiter-sized with equilibrium temperatures Teq up to 2,000 K, to those of a few Earth masses, with Teq \u223c 300 K. The list will include planets with no Solar System analog, such as the recently discovered planets GJ1214b, whose density lies between that of terrestrial and gaseous planets, or the rocky-iron planet 55 Cnc e, with day-side temperature close to 3,000 K. As the number of detected exoplanets is growing rapidly each year, and the mass and radius of those detected steadily decreases, the target list will be constantly adjusted to include the most interesting systems. We have baselined a dispersive spectrograph design covering continuously the 0. 4-16 μm spectral range in 6 channels (1 in the visible, 5 in the InfraRed), which allows the spectral resolution to be adapted from several tens to several hundreds, depending on the target brightness. The instrument will be mounted behind a 1. 5 m class telescope, passively cooled to 50 K, with the instrument structure and optics passively cooled to \u223c45 K. EChO will be placed in a grand halo orbit around L2. This orbit, in combination with an optimised thermal shield design, provides a highly stable thermal environment and a high degree of visibility of the sky to observe repeatedly several tens of targets over the year. Both the baseline and alternative designs have been evaluated and no critical items with Technology Readiness Level (TRL) less than 4-5 have been identified. We have also undertaken a first-order cost and development plan analysis and find that EChO is easily compatible with the ESA M-class mission framework. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Abstract:

New line data describing the absorption of CH 4 and CH 3D from 1.26 to 1.71μm (Campargue, A., Wang, L., Mondelain, D., Kassi, S., Bézard, B., Lellouch, E., Coustenis, A., de Bergh, C., Hirtzig, M., Drossart, P. [2012]. Icarus 219, 110-128), building upon previous papers by Campargue et al. (Campargue, A., Wang, L., Kassi, S., Masat, M., Votava, O. [2010]. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 111, 1141-1151; Wang, L., Kassi, S., Campargue, A. [2010]. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 111, 1130-1140; Wang, L., Kassi, S., Liu, A.W., Hu, S.M., Campargue, A. [2011]. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 112, 937-951)) have been applied to the analysis of Gemini-N/NIFS observations of Uranus made in 2010 and compared with earlier disc-averaged observations made by KPNO/FTS in 1982. The new line data are found to improve greatly the fit to the observed spectra and present a huge advance over previous methane absorption tables by allowing us to determine the CH 3D/CH 4 ratio and also start to break the degeneracy between methane abundance and cloud top height. The best fits are obtained if the cloud particles in the main cloud deck at the 2-3bar level become less scattering with wavelength across the 1.4-1.6μm region and we have modelled this variation here by varying the extinction cross-section and single-scattering albedo of the particles.Applying the new line data to the NIFS spectra of Uranus, we determine a new estimate of the CH 3D/CH 4 ratio of 2.9-0.5+0.9×10-4, which is consistent with the estimate of de Bergh et al. (de Bergh, C., Lutz, B.L., Owen, T., Brault, J., Chauville, J. [1986]. Astrophys. J. 311, 501-510) of 3.6-2.8+3.6×10-4, made by fitting a disc-averaged KPNO/FTS spectrum measured in 1982, but much better constrained. The NIFS observations made in 2010 have been disc-averaged and compared with the 1982 KPNO/FTS spectrum and found to be in excellent agreement.Using k-tables fitted to the new line data, the central meridian observations of Uranus' H-band spectrum (1.49-1.64μm) made by Gemini-N/NIFS in 2010 have been reanalyzed. The use of the new methane absorption coefficients and the modified scattering properties of the cloud particles in the main cloud deck appears to break the degeneracy between cloud height and methane abundance immediately above it in this spectral region and we find that both vary with latitude across Uranus' disc. Overall, we find that the main cloud deck becomes higher, but thinner from equator to poles, with a local maximum in cloud top height in the circumpolar zones at 45°N and 45°S. At the same time, using the 'D' temperature pressure profile of Lindal et al. (Lindal, G.F., Lyons, J.R., Sweetnam, D.N., Eshleman, V.R., Hinson, D.P. [1987]. J. Geophys. Res. 92, 14987-15001) and a deep methane abundance of 1.6% (Baines, K.H., Mickelson, M.E., Larson, L.E., Ferguson, D.W. [1995]. Icarus 144, 328-340) we find that the relative humidity of methane is high near the equator (~60%) and decreases sharply towards the poles, except near the circumpolar zone at 45°N, which has brightened steadily since 2007, and where there is a local maximum in methane relative humidity. In tests conducted with the warmer 'F1' profile of Sromovsky et al. (2011) we find a similar variation of methane abundance above the main cloud, although for this warmer temperature profile this abundance is dependent mostly on the fitted deep methane mole fraction. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.