Spectrum and atmosphere models of irradiated transiting extrasolar giant planets

Abstract

We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the planet/star contrast ratios at the secondary eclipse,their wavelength dependences, and, importantly, the day-night flux contrast during a planetary orbit. The presence of the thermal inversion/stratosphere seems to roughly correlate with the stellar flux at the planet. Such temperature inversions might caused by an upper-atmosphere absorber whose exact nature is still uncertain

7 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 253rd IAU Symposium: "Transiting Planets", May 2008, Cambridge, MA