Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013
Poster 2G020
Retrieval of atmospheric properties for habitable planets
von Paris, Philip (DLR Berlin/Université de Bordeaux)
Hedelt , Pascal (DLR Oberpfaffenhofen/Université de Bordeaux)
Selsis, Franck (Université de Bordeaux)
Schreier, Franz (DLR Oberpfaffenhofen)
Trautmann, Thomas (DLR Oberpfaffenhofen)
Abstract:
An increasing number of potentially habitable terrestrial planets are found. The search for atmospheric
signatures of planetary habitability and life might be possible in the future. We want to quantify the
accuracy of retrieved atmospheric parameters obtained from infrared emission spectroscopy. We use
synthetic observations of hypothetical habitable planets together with chi2 statistics and least-square
fits. When adopting the design of currently planned or proposed exoplanet characterization missions,
we find that emission spectroscopy could provide weak limits on surface conditions of terrestrial
planets. However, these mission designs are unlikely to allow to characterize the composition of the
atmosphere of a habitable planet. Upon increasing the signal-to-noise ratios by about a factor of 2-5
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. A full atmospheric characterization seems to be beyond the
capabilities of currently planned missions when using only emission spectroscopy.
Click here to view poster PDF