A Model of the Temporal Variability of Optical Light from Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets

Abstract

The light scattered by an extrasolar Earth-like planet's surface and atmosphere will vary in intensity and color as the planet rotates; the resulting light curve will contain information about the planet's properties. Since most of the light comes from a small fraction of the planet's surface, the temporal flux variability can be quite significant, $\sim$ 10-100%. In addition, for cloudless Earth-like extrasolar planet models, qualitative changes to the surface (such as ocean fraction, ice cover) significantly affect the light curve. Clouds dominate the temporal variability of the Earth but can be coherent over several days. In contrast to Earth's temporal variability, a uniformly, heavily clouded planet (e.g. Venus), would show almost no flux variability. We present light curves for an unresolved Earth and for Earth-like model planets calculated by changing the surface features. This work suggests that meteorological variability and the rotation period of an Earth-like planet could be derived from photometric observations. The inverse problem of deriving surface properties from a given light curve is complex and will require much more investigation.