The atmospheres of small, potentially rocky exoplanets are expected to cover a diverse range in composition and mass. Studying such objects therefore requires flexible and wide-ranging modeling ...capabilities. We present in this work the essential development steps that lead to our flexible radiative transfer module, REDFOX, and validate REDFOX for the solar system planets Earth, Venus, and Mars, as well as for steam atmospheres. REDFOX is a k-distribution model using the correlated-k approach with the random overlap method for the calculation of opacities used in the δ-two-stream approximation for radiative transfer. Opacity contributions from Rayleigh scattering, UV/visible cross sections, and continua can be added selectively. With the improved capabilities of our new model, we calculate various atmospheric scenarios for K2-18b, a super-Earth/sub-Neptune with ∼8 M⊕ orbiting in the temperate zone around an M star, with recently observed H2O spectral features in the infrared. We model Earth-like, Venus-like, and H2-He primary atmospheres of different solar metallicity and show resulting climates and spectral characteristics compared to observed data. Our results suggest that K2-18b has an H2-He atmosphere with limited amounts of H2O and CH4. Results do not support the possibility of K2-18b having a water reservoir directly exposed to the atmosphere, which would reduce atmospheric scale heights, and with it the amplitudes of spectral features, making the latter inconsistent with the observations. We also performed tests for H2-He atmospheres up to 50 times solar metallicity, all compatible with the observations.
With the recent discoveries of terrestrial planets around active M-dwarfs, destruction processes masking the possible presence of life are receiving increased attention in the exoplanet community. We ...investigate potential biosignatures of planets having Earth-like (N2-O2) atmospheres orbiting in the habitable zone of the M-dwarf star AD Leo. These are bombarded by high energetic particles that can create showers of secondary particles at the surface. We apply our cloud-free 1D climate-chemistry model to study the influence of key particle shower parameters and chemical efficiencies of NOx and HOx production from cosmic rays. We determine the effect of stellar radiation and cosmic rays upon atmospheric composition, temperature, and spectral appearance. Despite strong stratospheric O3 destruction by cosmic rays, smog O3 can significantly build up in the lower atmosphere of our modeled planet around AD Leo related to low stellar UVB. The abundance of N2O decreases with increasing flaring energies but a sink reaction for N2O with excited oxygen becomes weaker, stabilizing its abundance. CH4 is removed mainly by Cl in the upper atmosphere for the strong flaring cases and not via hydroxyl as is otherwise usually the case. Cosmic rays weaken the role of CH4 in heating the middle atmosphere so that H2O absorption becomes more important. We additionally underline the importance of HNO3 as a possible marker for strong stellar particle showers. In a nutshell, uncertainty in NOx and HOx production from cosmic rays significantly influences the abundance of biosignatures and spectral appearance.
The nearby TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is an exciting target for characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial planets. The planets e, f, and g lie in the circumstellar habitable zone and could ...sustain liquid water on their surfaces. During the extended pre-main-sequence phase of TRAPPIST-1, however, the planets may have experienced extreme water loss, leading to a desiccated mantle. The presence or absence of an ocean is challenging to determine with current and next-generation telescopes. Therefore, we investigate whether indirect evidence of an ocean and/or a biosphere can be inferred from observations of the planetary atmosphere. We introduce a newly developed photochemical model for planetary atmospheres, coupled to a radiative-convective model, and validate it against modern Earth, Venus, and Mars. The coupled model is applied to the TRAPPIST-1 planets e and f, assuming different surface conditions and varying amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. As input for the model we use a constructed spectrum of TRAPPIST-1, based on near-simultaneous data from X-ray to optical wavelengths. We compute cloud-free transmission spectra of the planetary atmospheres and determine the detectability of molecular features using the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We find that under certain conditions the existence or nonexistence of a biosphere and/or an ocean can be inferred by combining 30 transit observations with ELT and JWST within the K band. A nondetection of CO could suggest the existence of an ocean, whereas significant CH4 hints at the presence of a biosphere.
Due to its Earth-like minimum mass of 1.27 ME and its close proximity to our solar system, Proxima Centauri b is one of the most interesting exoplanets for habitability studies. Its host star, ...Proxima Centauri, is however a strongly flaring star, which is expected to provide a very hostile environment for potentially habitable planets. We perform a habitability study of Proxima Centauri b assuming an Earth-like atmosphere under high stellar particle bombardment, with a focus on spectral transmission features. We employ our extensive model suite calculating energy spectra of stellar particles, their journey through the planetary magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere, ultimately providing planetary climate and spectral characteristics, as outlined in Herbst et al. Our results suggest that together with the incident stellar energy flux, high particle influxes can lead to efficient heating of the planet well into temperate climates, by limiting CH4 amounts, which would otherwise run into antigreenhouse for such planets around M stars. We identify some key spectral features relevant for future spectral observations: First, NO2 becomes the major absorber in the visible, which greatly impacts the Rayleigh slope. Second, H2O features can be masked by CH4 (near-infrared) and CO2 (mid- to far-infrared), making them nondetectable in transmission. Third, O3 is destroyed and instead HNO3 features become clearly visible in the mid- to far-infrared. Lastly, assuming a few percent of CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 absorption at 5.3 m becomes significant (for flare and nonflare cases), strongly overlapping with a flare related NO feature in Earth's atmosphere.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), produced as a result of fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning, lightning, and soil emissions, is a key urban and rural tropospheric pollutant. In this case study, ...ground-based remote sensing has been coupled with the in situ network in Vienna, Austria, to investigate NO2 distributions in the planetary boundary layer. Near-surface and path-averaged NO2 mixing ratios within the metropolitan area of Vienna are estimated from car DOAS (differential optical absorption spectroscopy) zenith-sky and tower DOAS horizon observations. The latter configuration is innovative in the sense that it obtains horizontal measurements at more than a hundred different azimuthal angles – within a 360∘ rotation taking less than half an hour. Spectral measurements were made with a DOAS instrument on nine days in April, September, October, and November 2015 in the zenith-sky mode and on five days in April and May 2016 in the off-axis mode. The analysis of tropospheric NO2 columns from the car measurements and O4 normalized NO2 path averages from the tower observations provide interesting insights into the spatial and temporal NO2 distribution over Vienna. Integrated column amounts of NO2 from both DOAS-type measurements are converted into mixing ratios by different methods. The estimation of near-surface NO2 mixing ratios from car DOAS troposphericNO2 vertical columns is based on a linear regression analysis including mixing height and other meteorological parameters that affect the dilution and reactivity in the planetary boundary layer – a new approach for such conversion. Path-averaged NO2 mixing ratios are calculated from tower DOAS NO2 slant column densities by taking into account topography and geometry. Overall, lap averages of near-surface NO2 mixing ratios obtained from car DOAS zenith-sky measurements, around a circuit in Vienna, are in the range of 3.8 to 26.1 ppb and in good agreement with values obtained from in situ NO2 measurements for days with wind from the southeast. Path-averaged NO2 mixing ratios at 160 m above the ground as derived from the tower DOAS measurements are between 2.5 and 9 ppb on two selected days with different wind conditions and pollution levels and show similar spatial distribution as seen in the car DOAS zenith-sky observations. We conclude that the application of the two methods to obtain near-surface and path-averaged NO2 mixing ratios is promising for this case study.
Context. An increasing number of potentially habitable terrestrial planets and planet candidates are found by ongoing planet search programs. The search for atmospheric signatures to establish ...planetary habitability and the presence of life might be possible in the future. Aims. We want to quantify the accuracy of retrieved atmospheric parameters (composition, temperature, pressure) that might be obtained from infrared emission spectroscopy. Methods. We use synthetic observations of the atmospheres of hypothetical potentially habitable planets. These were constructed with a parametrized atmosphere model, a high-resolution radiative transfer model and a simplified noise model. The simulated observations were used to fit the model parameters. Furthermore, classic statistical tools such as χ2 statistics and least-square fits were used to analyze the simulated observations. Results. When adopting the design of currently planned or proposed exoplanet characterization missions, we find that emission spectroscopy could provide weak limits on the surface conditions of terrestrial planets, hence their potential habitability. However, these mission designs are unlikely to allow the composition of the atmosphere of a habitable planet to be characterized, even though CO2 is detected. Upon increasing the signal-to-noise ratios by about a factor of 2−5 (depending on spectral resolution) compared to current mission designs, the CO2 content could be characterized to within two orders of magnitude. The detection of the O3 biosignature remains marginal. The atmospheric temperature structure could not be constrained. Therefore, a full atmospheric characterization seems to be beyond the capabilities of such missions when using only emission spectroscopy during secondary eclipse or target visits. Other methods such as transmission spectroscopy or orbital photometry are probably needed in order to give additional constraints and break degeneracies.
We present the first global glyoxal (CHOCHO) tropospheric column product derived from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. Atmospheric glyoxal ...results from the oxidation of other non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and from direct emissions caused by combustion processes. Therefore, this product is a useful indicator of VOC emissions. It is generated with an improved version of the BIRA-IASB scientific retrieval algorithm relying on the differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) approach. Among the algorithmic updates, the DOAS fit now includes corrections to mitigate the impact of spectral misfits caused by scene brightness inhomogeneity and strong NO.sub.2 absorption. The product comes along with a full error characterization, which allows for providing random and systematic error estimates for every observation. Systematic errors are typically in the range of 1 x10.sup.14 -3 x10.sup.14 molec. cm.sup.-2 (â¼30 %-70 % in emission regimes) and originate mostly from a priori data uncertainties and spectral interferences with other absorbing species. The latter may be at the origin, at least partly, of an enhanced glyoxal signal over equatorial oceans, and further investigation is needed to mitigate them. Random errors are large (6x1014 molec. cm.sup.-2) but can be reduced by averaging observations in space and/or time. Benefiting from a high signal-to-noise ratio and a large number of small-size observations, TROPOMI provides glyoxal tropospheric column fields with an unprecedented level of detail.
The evolution of Earth's early atmosphere and the emergence of habitable conditions on our planet are intricately coupled with the development and duration of the magma ocean (MO) phase during the ...early Hadean period (4-4.5 Ga). In this paper, we study the evolution of the steam atmosphere during the MO period. We obtain the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) using the line-by-line radiative transfer code GARLIC. Our study suggests that an atmosphere consisting of pure H2O, built as a result of outgassing, extends the MO lifetime to several million years. The thermal emission as a function of the solidification timescale of an MO is shown. We study the effect of thermal dissociation of H2O at higher temperatures by applying atmospheric chemical equilibrium, which results in the formation of H2 and O2 during the early phase of the MO. A 1%-6% reduction in the OLR is seen. We also obtain the effective height of the atmosphere by calculating the transmission spectra for the whole duration of the MO. An atmosphere of depth 100 km is seen for pure water atmospheres. The effect of thermal dissociation on the effective height of the atmosphere is also shown. Due to the difference in the absorption behavior at different altitudes, the spectral features of H2 and O2 are seen at different altitudes of the atmosphere. Therefore, these species, along with H2O, have a significant contribution to the transmission spectra and could be useful for placing observational constraints on MO exoplanets.
In this study, mixing ratios of NO2 (XNO2) and HCHO (XHCHO) in the free troposphere are derived from two multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) data sets collected at ...Zugspitze (2650 m a.s.l., Germany) and Pico Espejo (4765 m a.s.l., Venezuela). The estimation of NO2 and HCHO mixing ratios is based on the modified geometrical approach, which assumes a single-scattering geometry and a scattering point altitude close to the instrument altitude. Firstly, the horizontal optical path length (hOPL) is obtained from O4 differential slant column densities (DSCDs) in the horizontal (0∘) and vertical (90∘) viewing directions. Secondly, XNO2 and XHCHO are estimated from the NO2 and HCHO DSCDs at the 0∘ and 90∘ viewing directions and averaged along the obtained hOPLs. As the MAX-DOAS instrument was performing measurements in the ultraviolet region, wavelength ranges of 346–372 and 338–357 nm are selected for the DOAS analysis to retrieve NO2 and HCHO DSCDs, respectively. In order to compare the measured O4 DSCDs and moreover to perform some sensitivity tests, the radiative transfer model SCIATRAN with adapted altitude settings for mountainous terrain is operated to simulate synthetic spectra, on which the DOAS analysis is also applied. The overall agreement between measured and synthetic O4 DSCDs is better for the higher Pico Espejo station than for Zugspitze. Further sensitivity analysis shows that a change in surface albedo (from 0.05 to 0.7) can influence the O4 DSCDs, with a larger absolute difference observed for the horizontal viewing direction. Consequently, the hOPL can vary by about 5 % throughout the season, for example when winter snow cover fully disappears in summer. Typical values of hOPLs during clear-sky conditions are 19 km (14 km) at Zugspitze and 34 km (26.5 km) at Pico Espejo when using the 346–372 (338–357 nm) fitting window. The estimated monthly values of XNO2 (XHCHO), averaged over these hOPLs during clear-sky conditions, are in the range of 60–100 ppt (500–950 ppt) at Zugspitze and 8.5–15.5 ppt (255–385 ppt) at Pico Espejo. Interestingly, multi-year-averaged monthly means of XNO2 and XHCHO increase towards the end of the dry season at the Pico Espejo site, suggesting that both trace gases are frequently lifted above the boundary layer as a result of South American biomass burning.
Atmospheric temperature and mixing ratio profiles of terrestrial planets vary with the spectral energy flux distribution for different types of M-dwarf stars and the planetary gravity. We investigate ...the resulting effects on the spectral appearance of molecular absorption bands, that are relevant as indicators for potential planetary habitability during primary and secondary eclipse for transiting terrestrial planets with Earth-like biomass emissions. Atmospheric profiles are computed using a plane-parallel, 1D climate model coupled with a chemistry model. We then calculate simulated spectra using a line-by-line radiative transfer model. We find that emission spectra during secondary eclipse show increasing absorption of methane, water and ozone for planets orbiting quiet M0-M3 dwarfs and the active M-type star AD Leo compared to solar type central stars. However, for planets orbiting very cool and quiet M dwarfs (M4 to M7), increasing temperatures in the mid-atmosphere lead to reduced absorption signals, making the detection of molecules more difficult in such scenarios. Transmission spectra during primary eclipse show strong absorption features of CH4, N2O and H2O for planets orbiting quiet M0-M7 stars and AD Leo. The N2O absorption of an Earth-sized planet orbiting a quiet M7 star can even be as strong as the CO2 signal. However, ozone absorption decreases for planets orbiting such cool central stars due to chemical effects in the atmosphere. To investigate the effect on the spectroscopic detection of absorption bands with potential future satellite missions, we compute signal-to-noise-ratios (SNR) for a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)-like aperture telescope.
PDF
