Recent Changes of The Mediterranean Sea At Interannual and Decadal Time Scales
Abstract
The COROT project will be the first space-based mission dedicated to the detection of short-period giant planets via the transit method. Although the COROT satellite is only designed to detect transiting planets, it will also be able to detect a significant number of non-transiting, short period planets via their reflected light. Depending on its albedo, a giant planet orbiting at 0.05 AU from a star can produce a photometric variation as large as 10-5 to 10-6 magnitudes due to reflected light from the planet and the changing phase. Although this amplitude is significantly less than the photometric error expected for the COROT transit field, this low signal should still be detectable due to the long viewing time and the large number of observations offered by COROT.
Monte Carlo simulations are presented of the detectability of extra-solar planets in reflected light using a data window and sampling consistent with that offered by the COROT mission. It is demonstrated that with a photometric error of 10-4 mag COROT should be able to detect the reflected light of extra-solar giant planets with an albedo as low as 0.1 at orbital distances of 0.05 AU; or planets with orbital radii as large as 0.1 AU and albedos greater than about 0.2. If the photometric error is as low as 10-5 mag then an extra-solar planet with an albedo as low as 0.1 can be detected at orbital distances up to 0.2 AU. The ability to make photometric measurements at different wavelengths (a feature of COROT) offers the exciting possibility of mea- suring the color dependent relative albedo of an extra-solar planet. This will extend extra-solar planet research from mere detections to studies of extra-solar planetary atmospheres in a large sample of stars.- Publication:
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EGS General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002EGSGA..27.6461D