Automatic model-based telluric correction for the ESPRESSO data reduction software. Model description and application to radial velocity computation

Abstract

Ground-based high-resolution spectrographs are key instruments for several astrophysical domains. Unfortunately, the observed spectra are contaminated by the Earth's atmosphere. While different techniques exist to correct for telluric lines in exoplanet atmospheric studies, in radial velocity (RV) studies, telluric lines with an absorption depth of >2% are generally masked, which poses a problem for faint targets and M dwarfs as most of their RV content is present where telluric contamination is important. We propose a simple telluric model to be embedded in the ESPRESSO DRS. The goal is to provide telluric-free spectra and enable RV measurements, including spectral ranges where telluric lines fall. The model is a line-by-line radiative transfer code that assumes a single atmospheric layer. We use the sky conditions and the physical properties of the lines from HITRAN to create the telluric spectrum. A subset of selected telluric lines is used to robustly fit the spectrum through a Levenberg-Marquardt minimization algorithm. When applied to stellar spectra from A0- to M5-type stars, the residuals of the strongest H2O lines are below 2% for all spectral types, with the exception of M dwarfs, which are within the pseudo-continuum. We then determined the RVs from the telluric-corrected ESPRESSO spectra of Tau Ceti and Proxima. We created telluric-free masks and compared the obtained RVs with the DRS RVs. In the case of Tau Ceti, we identified that micro-telluric lines introduce systematics up to an amplitude of 58 cm/s and with a period of one year. For Proxima, the gain in spectral content at redder wavelengths is equivalent to a gain of 25% in photon noise. This leads to better constraints on the semi-amplitude and eccentricity of Proxima d. We showcase that our model can be applied to other molecules, and thus to other wavelength regions observed by other spectrographs, such as NIRPS.