Retrieving Water Vapor from the Reflection Spectra of Earth-Like Worlds: Exploring Large Direct Imaging Missions
Abstract
Future space telescopes will be able to make direct observations of reflected light from potentially Earth-like exoplanetary atmospheres, with the goal of characterizing these atmospheres for signs of life. Atmospheric water vapor is one such critical component. Assessing the necessary spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio determine the presence of water and the amount of water vapor in an atmosphere will help guide the design of these telescopes and followup observational strategies. To that end, we use a state-of-the-art atmosphere model to calculate line-by-line planetary geometric albedos and reflection spectra, coupled with a Markov-chain Monte Carlo retrieval method, to retrieve H2O abundance in simulated Earth-like atmospheres with a focus on the 0.95 um water feature.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23324721S