A Random Walk on WASP-12b with the Bayesian Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (BART) Code
Abstract
We present the Bayesian Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (BART) code for atmospheric property retrievals from transit and eclipse spectra, and apply it to WASP-12b, a hot (~3000 K) exoplanet with a high eclipse signal-to-noise ratio. WASP-12b has been controversial. We (Madhusudhan et al. 2011, Nature) claimed it was the first planet with a high C/O abundance ratio. Line et al. (2014, ApJ) suggested a high CO2 abundance to explain the data. Stevenson et al. (2014, ApJ, atmospheric model by Madhusudhan) add additional data and reaffirm the original result, stating that C2H2 and HCN, not included in the Line et al. models, explain the data. We explore several modeling configurations and include Hubble, Spitzer, and ground-based eclipse data.BART consists of a differential-evolution Markov-Chain Monte Carlo sampler that drives a line-by-line radiative transfer code through the phase space of thermal- and abundance-profile parameters. BART is written in Python and C. Python modules generate atmospheric profiles from sets of MCMC parameters and integrate the resulting spectra over observational bandpasses, allowing high flexibility in modeling the planet without interacting with the fast, C portions that calculate the spectra. BART's shared memory and optimized opacity calculation allow it to run on a laptop, enabling classroom use. Runs can scale constant abundance profiles, profiles of thermochemical equilibrium abundances (TEA) calculated by the included TEA code, or arbitrary curves. Several thermal profile parameterizations are available. BART is an open-source, reproducible-research code. Users must release any code or data modifications if they publish results from it, and we encourage the community to use it and to participate in its development via http://github.com/ExOSPORTS/BART.This work was supported by NASA Planetary Atmospheres grant NNX12AI69G and NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program grant NNX13AF38G. J. Blecic holds a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22721201H