Planetary atmosphere observation analysis

Abstract:

Rosetta, the Solar System cornerstone mission of ESA's Horizon 2000 programme, consists of an orbiter and a lander, and is due to arrive at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014. Following its 2004 launch, Rosetta carried out a series of planetary fly-bys and gravitational assists. On these close fly-bys of the Earth, measurements were taken by the Visible Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS). Analysis of these spectra and comparison with spectra acquired by Earth-observing satellites can support the verification of the inflight calibration of Rosetta/VIRTIS. In this paper, measurements taken by VIRTIS in November 2009 are compared with suitable coincident data from Earth-observing instruments (ESA-ENVISAT/AATSR and SCIAMACHY, and EOS-TERRA/MODIS). Radiative transfer simulations using NEMESIS (Irwin et al.; 2008) are fit to the fly-by data taken by VIRTIS, using representative atmospheric and surface parameters. VIRTIS measurements correlate 90% with AATSR's, 85-94% with MODIS, and 82-88% with SCIAMACHYs. The VIRTIS spectra are reproducible in the 1-5 μm region, except in the 1.4 μm deep water vapour spectral absorption band in the near-infrared in cases in which the radiance is very low (cloud-free topographies), where VIRTIS consistently registers more radiance than do MODIS and SCIAMACHY. Over these cloud-free regions, VIRTIS registers radiances a factor of 3-10 larger than SCIAMACHY and of 3-8 greater than MODIS. It is speculated that this discrepancy could be due to a spectral light leak originating from reflections from the order-sorting filters above the detector around 1.4 μm. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract:

New line data describing the absorption of CH4 and CH3D from 1.26 to 1.71μm (WKMC-80K, 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) have been applied to the analysis of Gemini-N/NIFS observations of Neptune made in 2009 and VLT/CRIRES observations made in 2010. The new line data are found to greatly improve the fit to the observed spectra and present a considerable advance over previous methane datasets. The improved fits lead to an empirically derived wavelength-dependent correction to the scattering properties of the main observable cloud deck at 2-3bars that is very similar to the correction determined for Uranus' lower cloud using the same line dataset by Irwin et al. (Irwin, P.G.J., de Bergh, C., Courtin, R., Bézard, B., Teanby, N.A., Davis, G.R., Fletcher, L.N., Orton, G.S., Calcutt, S.B., Tice, D., Hurley, J. [2012]. Icarus 220, 369-382). By varying the abundance of CH3D in our simulations, analysis of the Gemini/NIFS observations leads to a new determination of the CH3D/CH4 ratio for Neptune of 3.0-0.9+1.0×10-4, which is smaller than previous determinations, but is identical (to within error) with the CH3D/CH4 ratio of 2.9-0.5+0.9×10-4 derived by a similar analysis of Gemini/NIFS observations of Uranus made in the same year. Thus it appears that the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune have an almost identical D/H ratio, which suggests that the icy planetisimals forming these planets came from the same source reservoir, or a reservoir that was well-mixed at the locations of ice giant formation, assuming complete mixing between the atmosphere and interior of both these planets. VLT/CRIRES observations of Neptune have also been analysed with the WKMC-80K methane line database, yielding very good fits, with little evidence for missing absorption features. The CRIRES spectra indicate that the mole fraction of CO at the 2-3bar level must be substantially less than its estimated stratospheric value of 1×10-6, which suggests that the predominant source of CO in Neptune's atmosphere is external, through the influx of micrometeorites and comets, although these data cannot rule out an additional internal source. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Abstract:

The Venus Express spacecraft was launched in November 2005. This first European mission to Venus arrived at the planet in April 2006, and within a month had completed on-orbit commissioning and was returning science data to Earth. After four mission extensions and eight years, the spacecraft continues to operate successfully. The end of the mission is anticipated to be in 2014, when the on-board fuel supplies are finally exhausted and the required orbit around Venus can no longer be maintained. This paper discusses the lessons learned by the Venus Express Science Operations Centre (VSOC) over the course of the eight year mission, and briefly discusses the plans for the end of the mission.

Abstract:

Directly imaged exoplanets are unexplored laboratories for the application of the spectral and temperature retrieval method, where the chemistry and composition of their atmospheres are inferred from inverse modeling of the available data. As a pilot study, we focus on the extrasolar gas giant HR 8799b, for which more than 50 data points are available. We upgrade our non-linear optimal estimation retrieval method to include a phenomenological model of clouds that requires the cloud optical depth and monodisperse particle size to be specified. Previous studies have focused on forward models with assumed values of the exoplanetary properties; there is no consensus on the best-fit values of the radius, mass, surface gravity, and effective temperature of HR 8799b. We show that cloud-free models produce reasonable fits to the data if the atmosphere is of super-solar metallicity and non-solar elemental abundances. Intermediate cloudy models with moderate values of the cloud optical depth and micron-sized particles provide an equally reasonable fit to the data and require a lower mean molecular weight. We report our best-fit values for the radius, mass, surface gravity, and effective temperature of HR 8799b. The mean molecular weight is about 3.8, while the carbon-to-oxygen ratio is about unity due to the prevalence of carbon monoxide. Our study emphasizes the need for robust claims about the nature of an exoplanetary atmosphere to be based on analyses involving both photometry and spectroscopy and inferred from beyond a few photometric data points, such as are typically reported for hot Jupiters. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..