Spectrum and atmosphere models of irradiated transiting extrasolar giant planets

TL;DR

This paper models the atmospheres of irradiated transiting giant exoplanets, demonstrating that temperature inversions are necessary to fit observed secondary eclipse data and significantly affect observational signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a consistent atmospheric modeling approach showing the necessity of temperature inversions in irradiated giant planets to match observations.

Findings

Temperature inversions are required to fit secondary eclipse data.

Inversions influence planet/star contrast ratios and wavelength dependence.

Inversions correlate with stellar flux levels.

Abstract

We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the planet/star contrast ratios at the secondary eclipse,their wavelength dependences, and, importantly, the day-night flux contrast during a planetary orbit. The presence of the thermal inversion/stratosphere seems to roughly correlate with the stellar flux at the planet. Such temperature inversions might caused by an upper-atmosphere absorber whose exact nature is still uncertain