Non-Local thermal equilibrium spectra of atmospheric molecules for exoplanets

TL;DR

This study investigates non-LTE effects on key atmospheric molecules in exoplanets, identifying spectral features that distinguish LTE from non-LTE conditions using molecular line data and atmospheric models.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of non-LTE spectral signatures for molecules like H2O, CH4, CO, and TiO in exoplanet atmospheres, utilizing the ExoMol database and modeling tools.

Findings

Identified specific spectral regions sensitive to non-LTE effects.

Compared LTE and non-LTE cross sections under exoplanet conditions.

Simulated transmission spectra highlighting non-LTE signatures.

Abstract

Here we present a study of non-LTE effects on the exoplanetary spectra of a collection of molecules which are key in the investigation of exoplanet atmospheres: water, methane, carbon monoxide and titanium oxide. These molecules are chosen as examples of different spectral ranges (IR and UV), molecular types (diatomics and polyatomics) and spectral types (electronic and ro-vibrational); the importance of different vibrational bands in forming distinct non-LTE spectral features are investigated. Most notably, such key spectral signatures for distinguishing between the LTE and non-LTE cases include: for CH4 the 3.15 $\mu$m band region; for H2O the 2.0 $\mu$m and 2.7 $\mu$m band regions; for TiO, a strong variation in intensity in the bands between 0.5 and 0.75 $\mu$m; and a sole CO signature between 5 and 6 $\mu$m. The analysis is based on the ExoMol cross sections and takes advantage of the extensive vibrational assignment of these molecular line lists in the ExoMol database. We examine LTE and non-LTE cross sections under conditions consistent with those on WASP-12b and WASP-76b using the empirically motivated bi-temperature Treanor model. In addition, we make a simplistic forward model simulation of transmission spectra for H2O in the atmosphere of WASP-12b using the TauREx 3 atmospheric modelling code.