Characterizing exoplanet atmospheres with SCALES medium-spectral-resolution angular differential imaging

Aditi Desai, Steph Sallum, Ravinder Banyal, Natalie Batalha, Natasha Batalha, Geoff Blake, Tim Brandt, Zack Briesemeister, Katherine de Kleer, Imke de Pater, Josh Eisner, Wen Fai Fong, Tom Greene, Mitsuhiko Honda, Isabel Kain, Charlie Kilpatrick, Mackenzie Lach, Mike Liu, Bruce Macintosh, Raquel A. MartinezDimitri Mawet, Brittany Miles, Caroline Morley, Diana Powell, Patrick Sheehan, Andrew J. Skemer, R. Deno Stelter, Jordan Stone, Arun Surya, Sivarani Thirupathi, Kevin Wagner, Yifan Zhou

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

SCALES (Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy) is a high-contrast lenslet-based integral field spectrograph (IFS) designed to characterize exoplanet atmospheres in the 2-5 micron wavelength range. The SCALES medium-resolution mode provides the ability to characterize exoplanets at increased spectral resolution via the use of a lenslet subarray with a 0.34 x 0.36 arcsecond field of view and an image slicer. We use the SCALES simulator scalessim to generate high-fidelity mock observations of planets in the medium-resolution mode that include realistic Keck adaptive optics performance, as well as other atmospheric and instrumental noise effects, to simulate planet detections, and then employ angular differential imaging to extract the planet spectra. Analyzing the recovered spectra from these simulations allows us to quantify the effects of systematic noise sources on planet characterization, in particular residual speckle noise following angular differential data processing. We use these simulated recovered spectra to explore SCALES' ability to constrain molecular abundances and disequilibrium chemistry in giant exoplanet atmospheres.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X
EditorsJulia J. Bryant, Kentaro Motohara, Joel R. Vernet
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510675155
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
EventGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024 - Yokohama, Japan
Duration: Jun 16 2024Jun 21 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume13096
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferenceGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityYokohama
Period6/16/246/21/24

Funding

We are grateful to the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation for their generous support of our efforts. This project also benefited from work conducted under the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. S.S. is supported by the National Science Foundation under MRI Grant No. 2216481. R.A.M is supported by the National Science Foundation MPS-Ascend Postdoctoral Research Fellowship under Grant No. 2213312.

Keywords

  • SCALES
  • angular differential imaging
  • exoplanet characterization
  • high-contrast spectroscopy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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