2019ApJ...877..109K

Recent transmission spectroscopy has revealed that clouds and hazes are common in the atmospheres of close-in exoplanets. In this study, using the photochemical, microphysical, and transmission spectrum models for close-in warm (<=1000 K) exoplanet atmospheres that we newly developed in our preceding paper, we investigate the vertical distributions of haze particles and gaseous species, and the resultant transmission spectra over wide ranges of the model parameters including UV irradiation intensity, metallicity, carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O), eddy diffusion coefficient, and temperature. The sensitivity to metallicity is of particular interest. We find that a rise in metallicity basically leads to a reduction of the photodissociation rates of the hydrocarbons and therefore the haze monomer production rates. This is due to an enhanced photon-shielding effect by the major photon absorbers, such as H₂O, CO, CO₂, and O₂, existing at altitudes higher than the hydrocarbons. We also find that at relatively short wavelengths (<=2-3 µm), the absorption features in transmission spectra are most pronounced for moderate metallicities such as 100 times the solar metallicity, whereas the lower the metallicity, the stronger the absorption features at relatively long wavelengths (>=2-3 µm), where the contribution of haze is small. These are because of the two competing effects of reduced haze production rate and atmospheric scale height for higher metallicities. For the other model parameters, we show that stronger absorption features appear in transmission spectra of atmospheres with lower UV irradiation, lower C/O ratio, higher eddy diffusion coefficient, and higher temperature.