Modeling Exoplanetary Atmospheres: An Overview

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of modeling exoplanetary atmospheres, focusing on temperature-pressure profiles, spectral features, and the influence of various physical and chemical factors, mainly for gas giants and related planets.

Contribution

It synthesizes current methods and insights into exoplanet atmosphere modeling, highlighting connections to brown dwarfs and planet formation theories.

Findings

Stellar irradiation and metallicity significantly affect atmospheric structures.

Cloud opacity impacts the emitted spectra of exoplanets.

Model retrievals can infer atmospheric composition and formation history.

Abstract

We review several aspects of the calculation of exoplanet model atmospheres in the current era, with a focus on understanding the temperature-pressure profiles of atmospheres and their emitted spectra. Most of the focus is on gas giant planets, both under strong stellar irradiation and in isolation. The roles of stellar irradiation, metallicity, surface gravity, C/O ratio, interior fluxes, and cloud opacity are discussed. Connections are made to the well-studied atmospheres of brown dwarfs as well as sub-Neptunes and terrestrial planets, where appropriate. Illustrative examples of model atmosphere retrievals on a thermal emission spectrum are given and connections are made between atmospheric abundances and the predictions of planet formation models.