Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works
The detection of exolife is one of the goals of very ambitious future space missions that aim to take direct images of Earth-like planets. While associations of simple molecules present in the planet's atmosphere ($O_2$, $O_3$, $CO_2$ etc.) have been identified as possible global biomarkers, we...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.0706.3798 2023-05-15T18:40:37+02:00 Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works Arnold, Luc 2007 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0706.3798 https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.3798 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-007-9281-4 Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2007 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0706.3798 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-007-9281-4 2022-04-01T15:28:43Z The detection of exolife is one of the goals of very ambitious future space missions that aim to take direct images of Earth-like planets. While associations of simple molecules present in the planet's atmosphere ($O_2$, $O_3$, $CO_2$ etc.) have been identified as possible global biomarkers, we review here the detectability of a signature of life from the planet's surface, i.e. the green vegetation. The vegetation reflectance has indeed a specific spectrum, with a sharp edge around 700 nm, known as the "Vegetation Red Edge" (VRE). Moreover vegetation covers a large surface of emerged lands, from tropical evergreen forest to shrub tundra. Thus considering it as a potential global biomarker is relevant. Earthshine allows to observe the Earth as a distant planet, i.e. without spatial resolution. Since 2001, Earthshine observations have been used by several authors to test and quantify the detectability of the VRE in the Earth spectrum. The egetation spectral signature is detected as a small 'positive shift' of a few percents above the continuum, starting at 700 nm. This signature appears in most spectra, and its strength is correlated with the Earth's phase (visible land versus visible ocean). The observations show that detecting the VRE on Earth requires a photometric relative accuracy of 1% or better. Detecting something equivalent on an Earth-like planet will therefore remain challenging, moreover considering the possibility of mineral artifacts and the question of 'red edge' universality in the Universe. : Invited talk in "Strategies for Life Detection" (ISSI Bern, 24-28 April 2006) to appear in a hardcopy volume of the ISSI Space Science Series, Eds, J. Bada et al., and also in an issue of Space Science Reviews. 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table Text Tundra DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences Arnold, Luc Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
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Astrophysics astro-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
The detection of exolife is one of the goals of very ambitious future space missions that aim to take direct images of Earth-like planets. While associations of simple molecules present in the planet's atmosphere ($O_2$, $O_3$, $CO_2$ etc.) have been identified as possible global biomarkers, we review here the detectability of a signature of life from the planet's surface, i.e. the green vegetation. The vegetation reflectance has indeed a specific spectrum, with a sharp edge around 700 nm, known as the "Vegetation Red Edge" (VRE). Moreover vegetation covers a large surface of emerged lands, from tropical evergreen forest to shrub tundra. Thus considering it as a potential global biomarker is relevant. Earthshine allows to observe the Earth as a distant planet, i.e. without spatial resolution. Since 2001, Earthshine observations have been used by several authors to test and quantify the detectability of the VRE in the Earth spectrum. The egetation spectral signature is detected as a small 'positive shift' of a few percents above the continuum, starting at 700 nm. This signature appears in most spectra, and its strength is correlated with the Earth's phase (visible land versus visible ocean). The observations show that detecting the VRE on Earth requires a photometric relative accuracy of 1% or better. Detecting something equivalent on an Earth-like planet will therefore remain challenging, moreover considering the possibility of mineral artifacts and the question of 'red edge' universality in the Universe. : Invited talk in "Strategies for Life Detection" (ISSI Bern, 24-28 April 2006) to appear in a hardcopy volume of the ISSI Space Science Series, Eds, J. Bada et al., and also in an issue of Space Science Reviews. 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table |
format |
Text |
author |
Arnold, Luc |
author_facet |
Arnold, Luc |
author_sort |
Arnold, Luc |
title |
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
title_short |
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
title_full |
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
title_fullStr |
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
title_full_unstemmed |
Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works |
title_sort |
earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - a review of 2001 - 2006 works |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0706.3798 https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.3798 |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-007-9281-4 |
op_rights |
Assumed arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article for submissions made before January 2004 http://arxiv.org/licenses/assumed-1991-2003/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.0706.3798 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-007-9281-4 |
_version_ |
1766230005927378944 |