YunMa: Enabling Spectral Retrievals of Exoplanetary Clouds

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 957; no. 2; pp. 104 - 122
• Main Authors: Ma, Sushuang, Ito, Yuichi, Al-Refaie, Ahmed Faris, Changeat, Quentin, Edwards, Billy, Tinetti, Giovanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.11.2023; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Atmosphere; Atmospheric clouds; Cloud microphysics; Cloud particles; Cloud properties; Clouds; Exoplanet atmospheres; Exoplanets; Extrasolar planets; Microphysics; Parameters; Planetary atmospheres; Radiative transfer; Retrieval; Spectra; Transmission spectroscopy; Vertical distribution
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf8ca

Abstract In this paper, we present YunMa , an exoplanet cloud simulation and retrieval package, which enables the study of cloud microphysics and radiative properties in exoplanetary atmospheres. YunMa simulates the vertical distribution and sizes of cloud particles and their corresponding scattering signature in transit spectra. We validated YunMa against results from the literature. When coupled to the TauREx 3 platform, an open Bayesian framework for spectral retrievals, YunMa enables the retrieval of the cloud properties and parameters from transit spectra of exoplanets. The sedimentation efficiency ( f sed ), which controls the cloud microphysics, is set as a free parameter in retrievals. We assess the retrieval performances of YunMa through 28 instances of a K2-18 b-like atmosphere with different fractions of H 2 /He and N 2 , and assuming water clouds. Our results show a substantial improvement in retrieval performances when using YunMa instead of a simple opaque cloud model and highlight the need to include cloud radiative transfer and microphysics to interpret the next-generation data for exoplanet atmospheres. This work also inspires instrumental development for future flagships by demonstrating retrieval performances with different data quality.