Disk-averaged spectrum generation for spherically symmetric planets and moons

Abstract

Here I present a simple and efficient method for generating a disk-averaged planetary spectrum. The technique uses a weighted average of component spectra generated on an irregular grid of offsets from the planet center. This accounts for variations in center to limb brightness and emission from beyond the limb, which is important for bodies with extended atmospheres such as Saturn's moon Titan. The method assumes spherically symmetric emission and requires a grid of component spectra fine enough to faithfully capture radial radiance variations. An example application to Titan's 7.7 $\mu$m methane emission demonstrates the method.

4 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (4)

• Planetary Spectrum Generator: an accurate online radiative transfer suite for atmospheres, comets, small bodies and exoplanets
• Disk-averaged synthetic spectra of Mars
• Mid-Infrared Properties of Disk Averaged Observations of Earth with AIRS
• The Atmosphere of Titan in Late Northern Summer from JWST and Keck Observations