Detection of dynamic cloud formation in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet

Clouds and hazes are ubiquitous in the atmospheres of planets in the Solar System. In exoplanets, the presence of high-altitude clouds and hazes have been inferred due to their obscuring nature of atmospheric signatures in transit spectroscopy. Identification of these cloud species is elusive as many molecules and hazes create similar spectral effects. In this talk, I will discuss the optical phase curve of KOI 614.01, a warm-Jupiter in an eccentric orbit around a Sun-like star. KOI 614.01 exhibits smooth brightness variations in its phase curve, but resides at an orbital distance where the amplitudes of doppler beaming, tidal distortion, and reflection effects are greatly diminished. Here I will present evidence for dynamic cloud formation in the atmosphere of the warm-Jupiter KOI 614.01. The total system flux of the KOI 614 system increases by 32.0 ppm when KOI 614.01 resides closer than 0.1147 AU from its host star, and takes 7.7 hours to change states. Model atmospheres of KOI 614.01 throughout its orbit demonstrate that its upper atmosphere crosses the condensation curve of KCl and NaCl, suggesting that clouds are dynamically forming and dissipating, obscuring and revealing the warmer atmosphere underneath.