Exoplanet atmospheres

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Saturn's Titan: Surface change, ammonia, and implications for atmospheric and tectonic activity

ICARUS 199:2 (2009) 429-441

Authors:

RM Nelson, LW Kamp, DL Matson, PGJ Irwin, KH Baines, MD Boryta, FE Leader, R Jaumann, WD Smythe, C Sotin, RN Clark, DP Cruikshank, P Drossart, JC Pearl, BW Hapke, J Lunine, M Combes, G Bellucci, J-P Bibring, F Capaccioni, P Cerroni, A Coradini, V Formisano, G Filacchione, RY Langevin, TB McCord, V Mennella, PD Nicholson, B Sicardy
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Sources of remotely sensed data on the giant planets

Chapter in GIANT PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM: ATMOSPHERES, COMPOSITION, AND STRUCTURE, SECOND EDITION, (2009) 263-+
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Vertical structure of temperature, composition, and clouds

Chapter in GIANT PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM: ATMOSPHERES, COMPOSITION, AND STRUCTURE, SECOND EDITION, (2009) 73-+
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System design and analysis of the exo-planet imaging camera and spectrograph (EPICS) for the European ELT

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 7014 (2008)

Authors:

C Vérinaud, V Korkiakoskia, N Yaitskova, P Martinez, EK Markus, Jean-Luc Beuzit, Lyu Abe, Pierr, Baudozd, Anthony Boccalettid, Kjetil Dohlene, GG Raffaele, Dino Mesaf, Florian Kerberb, Hans Martin Schmidg, Lars Venema, Graeme Slater, Matthias Tecza, AT Niranjan

Abstract:

One of the main science objectives of the European ELT is the direct imaging of extrasolar planets. The large aperture of the telescope has the potential to significantly enlarge the discovery space towards older gas giant exo-planets seen in reflected light. In this paper, we give an overview of the EPICS system design strategy during the phase A study. In order to tackle the critical limitations to high contrast, extensive end-to-end simulations will be developed since the start to test different scenarios and guide the overall design. Keywords: Extremely Large Telescope, high contrast imaging, extrasolar planets, instrumentation, adaptive optics.
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Intense polar temperature inversion in the middle atmosphere on Mars

Nature Geoscience 1:11 (2008) 745-749

Authors:

DJ McCleese, JT Schofield, FW Taylor, WA Abdou, O Aharonson, D Banfield, SB Calcutt, NG Heavens, PGJ Irwin, DM Kass, A Kleinböhl, WG Lawson, CB Leovy, SR Lewis, DA Paige, PL Read, MI Richardson, N Teanby, RW Zurek

Abstract:

Current understanding of weather, climate and global atmospheric circulation on Mars is incomplete, in particular at altitudes above about 30 km. General circulation models for Mars are similar to those developed for weather and climate forecasting on Earth and require more martian observations to allow testing and model improvements. However, the available measurements of martian atmospheric temperatures, winds, water vapour and airborne dust are generally restricted to the region close to the surface and lack the vertical resolution and global coverage that is necessary to shed light on the dynamics of Mars middle atmosphere at altitudes between 30 and 80 km (ref.7). Here we report high-resolution observations from the Mars Climate Sounder instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These observations show an intense warming of the middle atmosphere over the south polar region in winter that is at least 10-20 K warmer than predicted by current model simulations. To explain this finding, we suggest that the atmospheric downwelling circulation over the pole, which is part of the equator-to-pole Hadley circulation, may be as much as 50 more vigorous than expected, with consequences for the cycles of water, dust and CO"2 that regulate the present-day climate on Mars. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited.
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