YunMa: Enabling Spectral Retrievals of Exoplanetary Clouds. (arXiv:2301.13708v1 [astro-ph.EP])

YunMa: Enabling Spectral Retrievals of Exoplanetary Clouds. (arXiv:2301.13708v1 [astro-ph.EP])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ma_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Sushuang Ma</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ito_Y/0/1/0/all/0/1">Yuichi Ito</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Al_Refaie_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ahmed Faris Al-Refaie</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Changeat_Q/0/1/0/all/0/1">Quentin Changeat</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Edwards_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Billy Edwards</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Tinetti_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Giovanna Tinetti</a>

In this paper, we present YunMa, a model 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 cloudy super-Earth’s atmosphere. This work also highlights the
need for cloud radiative transfer and microphysics modelling to retrieve
next-generation data of exoplanets.

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