2025ApJ...994L..31H


Query : 2025ApJ...994L..31H

2025ApJ...994L..31H - Astrophys. J., 994, L31 (2025/November-3)

Separating Flare and Secondary Atmospheric Signals with RADYN Modeling of Near-infrared JWST Transmission Spectroscopy Observations of TRAPPIST-1.

HOWARD W.S., KOWALSKI A.F., RADICA M., FLAGG L., VASILYEV V., RACKHAM B.V., TOVAR MENDOZA G., MacGREGOR M.A., SHAPIRO A.I., TAYLOR J., COULOMBE L.-P., LIM O. and LAFRENIERE D.

Abstract (from CDS):

Although TRAPPIST-1's temperate planets have the highest transmission signals of any known system, flares contaminate 50%-70% of transits at the 1000 ppm level, far above 100 ppm secondary atmospheric signals. Efforts to mitigate flare contamination and assess impacts on radiation environments are each hampered by a lack of empirical spectral analysis and physics-based modeling. We present spectrotemporal analysis and radiative-hydrodynamic modeling of 5.5 hr of NIRISS and NIRSpec observations of six TRAPPIST-1 flares of 2.2-8.7 × 1030 erg. The flare lines and continua are characterized using grid searches of RADYN beam-heating models spanning 104 times in electron beam parameters. Best-fit models indicate these flares result from moderate-intensity beams with emergent electron fluxes of Fe = 1012 erg s–1 cm–2 and energies ≤37 keV, although all models overpredict the Paschen jump. These models predict X-ray and extreme UV (XUV), far-UV, and near-UV counterparts to the IR peak fluxes of 8.9-28.9 × 1027, 4.3-13.9 × 1026, and 3.4-11.4 × 1027 erg s–1, respectively. Scaling the flare rate into the XUV suggests flaring contributes 1.35${}_{-0.15}^{+2.0}\,\times $ quiescence yr–1. We bin integrations of similar flare effective temperature to construct fiducial flare spectra from 2000 to 4500 K, in order to develop separate empirical and RADYN-based mitigation pipelines. Both pipelines are applied to all 5.5 hr of R = 10 data, resulting in maximum residuals from 1 to 2.8 μm of 100-140 ppm and typical residuals of 54 ± 14 and 65 ± 17 ppm for the empirical and RADYN-based pipelines, respectively. Injection testing supports a 3σ detection capability for CO2 atmospheres with features of 150-250 ppm, with weak evidence (Bayes factor ≈ 3) still obtained at 130 ppm. Our results motivate multiwavelength observations to improve model fidelity and test high-energy predictions.

Abstract Copyright: © 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

Journal keyword(s): Transmission spectroscopy - Stellar flares - Exoplanet atmospheres - M dwarf stars - Planet hosting stars

Simbad objects: 11

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Number of rows : 11
N Identifier Otype ICRS (J2000)
RA
ICRS (J2000)
DEC
Mag U Mag B Mag V Mag R Mag I Sp type #ref
1850 - 2026
#notes
1 BD-17 588 ** 03 01 51.3895517 -16 35 36.110284           M3.5+M3.0 73 0
2 1RXS J050514.2-475625 PM* 05 05 14.4284259960 -47 56 15.526276908   15.960 14.365 14.157   ~ 36 0
3 L 98-59 PM* 08 18 07.6214406393 -68 18 46.805365587   13.22 11.685 11.294 9.25 M3V 135 0
4 L 320-124 PM* 10 14 51.7786855411 -47 09 24.192778106     13.49 12.26 10.69 M3.5V 159 0
5 LSPM J1206+1230 PM* 12 06 17.4370907952 +12 30 24.883810596   16.8   14.6   ~ 25 0
6 WASP-39b Pl 14 29 18.4151689656 -03 26 40.204480380           ~ 345 1
7 TRAPPIST-1g Pl 23 06 29.3684948589 -05 02 29.037301866           ~ 237 0
8 TRAPPIST-1 LM* 23 06 29.3684948589 -05 02 29.037301866     18.798 16.466 14.024 M7.5e 1306 0
9 TRAPPIST-1b Pl 23 06 29.3684948589 -05 02 29.037301866           ~ 380 0
10 TRAPPIST-1f Pl 23 06 29.3684948589 -05 02 29.037301866           ~ 281 0
11 TRAPPIST-1c Pl 23 06 29.3684948589 -05 02 29.037301866           ~ 282 0

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