Exoplanet atmosphere models
Forward and retrieval models used to interpret exoplanet transmission, emission, and reflection spectra. The dominant frameworks couple radiative transfer with chemical-equilibrium or kinetic chemistry, increasingly with self-consistent thermal profiles.
Known gaps
- Clouds and hazes — most production models are cloud-free or use parameterized grey clouds because real cloud microphysics (nucleation, sedimentation, lateral patchiness) is computationally expensive. The 2026 src-jwst-ice-clouds-exoplanet-2026-04 result on water-ice-clouds in epsilon-indi-ab is one of the most explicit cases where this gap demonstrably misreads atmospheric composition.
- Photochemistry false-positives — abiotic O₂ and CH₄ pathways are still being mapped (see src-oxygen-false-positive-biosignatures-2026-03).
- 3D dynamics — most retrievals assume 1D atmospheres; rotation, day-night terminator effects, and patchy cloud decks are open problems.
Related pages
- water-ice-clouds
- direct-imaging
- jwst
- src-jwst-ice-clouds-exoplanet-2026-04
- src-jwst-toi-1130b-atmosphere-2026-05
- src-jwst-biosignature-prospects-2025
- src-oxygen-false-positive-biosignatures-2026-03
- src-biosignature-gas-flux-inference-2026-04
- src-sciencedaily-forbidden-exoplanet-atmosphere-2026-04 — toi-5205-b stress-tests the bulk-tracks-atmosphere assumption: bulk planet is ~100× more metal-rich than the visible atmosphere (interior/atmosphere decoupling).
- src-aas-nova-wd-0806b-atmosphere-2026-04 — wd-0806b yields the first observational evidence that vertical mixing (K_zz) weakens with altitude — argues against the single-K_zz simplification standard in 1D retrievals.