On the Inference of Thermal Inversions in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres

Understand

Several studies in the recent past have inferred the existence of thermal inversions in some transiting hot Jupiter atmospheres.

• Given the limited data available, the inference of a thermal inversion depends critically on the chemical composition assumed for the atmosphere.
• In this study, we explore the degeneracies between thermal inversions and molecular abundances in four highly irradiated hot Jupiter atmospheres, day-side observations of which were previously reported to be consistent with thermal inversions based on Spitzer photometry.
• The four systems are: HD 209458b, HAT-P-7b, TrES-4, and TrES-2.