P060-07
EarthShine: The Earth viewed as an exoplanet from the Lunar surface

Monday, 14 December 2020: 16:24
Virtual
Emily Lynn Wilson1, Padi T Boyd2, Alan P. Smale3, Nickolay Anatoly Krotkov1, Alexander Marshak1 and Lesley E Ott1, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) Office, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Will we recognize a habitable exoplanet when we see it? The Earth is the best-studied habitable planet to inform observations from future exoplanet missions. By considering the Earth as an exoplanet from the lunar surface, both in “transit” and reflected light, and comparing with simultaneous “ground truth” from orbiting NASA Heliophysics and Earth Science missions, we can tease out features in the “exoEarth” spectral signature from environmental drivers unrelated to life.

We present EarthShine: an instrument suite that views Earth as an exoplanet proxy from a lunar platform in order to validate and improve models that are critically important for designing future NASA missions to directly image and characterize exoplanets. Results would inform exoplanet observing strategies for future missions that are focused on searches for habitable environments.

The EarthShine suite consists of a wide-field optical camera (WF-OC) for low resolution spectroscopy and imaging, and a wide-field laser heterodyne radiometer (WF-LHR) for high spectral resolution gas sensing. From the lunar vantage point, this suite will also provide complementary integrated full-Earth observations to compare with those from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) and Geostationary Carbon Observatory (GeoCarb). The coarser but broader measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor would help us understand the fuller context needed to support OCO-2 and GeoCarb’s targeted products. Also, observations collected during different time zones could inform our understanding of the biosphere.

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