White dwarf WD 1145+017 is orbited by several clouds of dust, possibly emanating from actively disintegrating bodies. These dust clouds reveal themselves through deep, broad, and evolving transits in the star's light curve. Here, we report two epochs of multiwavelength photometric observations of WD 1145+017, including several filters in the optical, K-s and 4.5 mu m bands in 2016 and 2017. The observed transit depths are different at these wavelengths. However, after correcting for excess dust emission at Ks and 4.5 mu m, we find the transit depths for the white dwarf itself are the same at all wavelengths, at least to within the observational uncertainties of similar to 5-10 per cent. From this surprising result, and under the assumption of low optical depth dust clouds, we conclude that there is a deficit of small particles (with radii s less than or similar to 1.5 mu m) in the transiting material. We propose a model wherein only large particles can survive the high equilibrium temperature environment corresponding to 4.5 h orbital periods around WD 1145+017, while small particles sublimate rapidly. In addition, we evaluate dust models that are permitted by our measurements of infrared emission.

We present multiwavelength, ground-based follow-up photometry of the white dwarf WD 1145+017, which has recently been suggested to be orbited by up to six or more short-period, low-mass, disintegrating planetesimals. We detect nine significant dips in flux of between 10% and 30% of the stellar flux in our similar to 32 hr of photometry, suggesting that WD 1145+017 is indeed being orbited by multiple, short-period objects. Through fits to the asymmetric transits that we observe, we confirm that the transit egress is usually longer than the ingress, and that the transit duration is longer than expected for a solid body at these short periods, all suggesting that these objects have cometary tails streaming behind them. The precise orbital periods of the planetesimals are unclear, but at least one object, and likely more, have orbital periods of similar to 4.5 hr. We are otherwise unable to confirm the specific periods that have been reported, bringing into question the long-term stability of these periods. Our high-precision photometry also displays low-amplitude variations, suggesting that dusty material is consistently passing in front of the white dwarf, either from discarded material from these disintegrating planetesimals or from the detected dusty debris disk. We compare the transit depths in the V-and R-bands of our multiwavelength photometry, and find no significant difference; therefore, for likely compositions, the radius of single-size particles in the cometary tails streaming behind the planetesimals must be similar to 0.15 mu m or larger, or similar to 0.06 mu m or smaller, with 2 sigma onfidence.

The impact of ice clouds on solar disk and circumsolar radiances is investigated using a Monte Carlo radiative transfer model. The monochromatic direct and diffuse radiances are simulated at angles of 0 to 8 degrees from the center of the sun. Input data for the model are derived from measurements conducted during the 2010 Small Particles in Cirrus (SPARTICUS) campaign together with state-of-the-art databases of optical properties of ice crystals and aerosols. For selected cases, the simulated radiances are compared with ground-based radiance measurements obtained by the Sun and Aureole Measurements (SAM) instrument.First, the sensitivity of the radiances to the ice cloud properties and aerosol optical thickness is addressed. The angular dependence of the disk and circumsolar radiances is found to be most sensitive to assumptions about ice crystal roughness (or, more generally,non- ideal features of ice crystals) and size distribution, with ice crystal habit playing a somewhat smaller role. Second, in comparisons with SAM data, the ice cloud optical thickness is adjusted for each case so that the simulated radiances agree closely (i.e., within 3 %) with the measured disk radiances. Circumsolar radiances at angles larger than approximate to 3 degrees are systematically underestimated when assuming smooth ice crystals, whereas the agreement with the measurements is better when rough ice crystals are assumed. Our results suggest that it may well be possible to infer the particle roughness directly from ground-based SAM measurements. In addition, the results show the necessity of correcting the ground-based measurements of direct radiation for the presence of diffuse radiation in the instrument's field of view, in particular in the presence of ice clouds.

We present a way of searching for non-transiting exoplanets with dusty tails. In the transiting case, the extinction by dust during the transit removes more light from the beam than is scattered into it. Thus, the forward scattering component of the light is best seen either just prior to ingress, or just after egress, but with reduced amplitude over the larger peak that is obscured by the transit. This picture suggests that it should be equally productive to search for positive-going peaks in the flux from non-transiting exoplanets with dusty tails. We discuss what amplitudes are expected for different orbital inclination angles. The signature of such objects should be distinct from normal transits, starspots, and most - but not all - types of stellar pulsations.

We present the discovery of a transiting exoplanet candidate in the K2 Field-1 with an orbital period of 9.1457 hours: EPIC 201637175b. The highly variable transit depths, ranging from ∼0% to 1.3%, are suggestive of a planet that is disintegrating via the emission of dusty efflu ents. We characterize the host star as an M-dwarf with Teff ≃ 3800. We have obtained ground-based transit measurements with several 1-m class telescopes and with the GTC. These observations (1) improve the transit ephemeris; (2) confirm the variable nature of the transit depths; (3) indicate variations in the transit shapes; and ( 4) demonstrate clearly that at least on one occasion the transit depths were significantly wavelength dependent. Th e latter three effects tend to indicate extinction of starlight by dust rather than by any combination of solid bodies. The K2 observations yield a folded light curve with lower time resolution but with substantially better st atistical precision compared with the ground-based observations. We detect a significant “bump’ just after the t ransit egress, and a less significant bump just prior to transit ingress. We interpret these bumps in the context o f a planet that is not only likely streaming a dust tail behind it, but also has a more prominent leading dust trail that precedes it. This effect is modeled in terms of dust grains that can escape to beyond the planet’s Hill spher e and effectively undergo ‘Roche lobe overflow’, even though the planet’s surface is likely underfilling its R oche lobe by a factor of 2. Subject headings:planetary systems—planets and satellites: detection, atmospheres

We present the discovery of a transiting exoplanet candidate in the K2 Field-1 with an orbital period of 9.1457 hr: K2-22b. The highly variable transit depths, ranging from ∼0% to 1.3%, are suggestive of a planet that is disintegrating via the emission of dusty effluents. We characterize the host star as an M-dwarf with T_ eff≃ 3800 K. We have obtained ground-based transit measurements with several 1-m class telescopes and with the GTC. These observations (1) improve the transit ephemeris; (2) confirm the variable nature of the transit depths; (3) indicate variations in the transit shapes; and (4) demonstrate clearly that at least on one occasion the transit depths were significantly wavelength dependent. The latter three effects tend to indicate extinction of starlight by dust rather than by any combination of solid bodies. The K2 observations yield a folded light curve with lower time resolution but with substantially better statistical precision compared with the ground-based observations. We detect a significant "bump" just after the transit egress, and a less significant bump just prior to transit ingress. We interpret these bumps in the context of a planet that is not only likely streaming a dust tail behind it, but also has a more prominent leading dust trail that precedes it. This effect is modeled in terms of dust grains that can escape to beyond the planet's Hill sphere and effectively undergo `Roche lobe overflow,' even though the planet's surface is likely underfilling its Roche lobe by a factor of 2.

Astronomical observations of distant quasars may be important to test models for quantum gravity, which posit Planck-scale spatial uncertainties ('spacetime foam') that would produce phase fluctuations in the wavefront of radiation emitted by a source, which may accumulate over large path lengths. We show explicitly how wavefront distortions cause the image intensity to decay to the point where distant objects become undetectable if the accumulated path-length fluctuations become comparable to the wavelength of the radiation. We also reassess previous efforts in this area. We use X-ray and gamma-ray observations to rule out several models of spacetime foam, including the interesting random-walk and holographic models.

We present multiwavelength photometry, high angular resolution imaging, and radial velocities of the unique and confounding disintegrating low-mass planet candidate KIC 12557548b. Our high angular resolution imaging, which includes space-based Hubble Space TelescopeWide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3) observations in the optical (similar to 0.53 mu m and similar to 0.77 mu m), and ground-based Keck/NIRC2 observations in K' band (similar to 2.12 mu m), allow us to rule out background and foreground candidates at angular separations greater than 0 ''.2 that are bright enough to be responsible for the transits we associate with KIC 12557548. Our radial velocity limit from Keck/HIRES allows us to rule out bound, low-mass stellar companions (similar to 0.2 M-circle dot) to KIC 12557548 on orbits less than 10 yr, as well as placing an upper limit on the mass of the candidate planet of 1.2 Jupiter masses; therefore, the combination of our radial velocities, high angular resolution imaging, and photometry are able to rule out most false positive interpretations of the transits. Our precise multiwavelength photometry includes two simultaneous detections of the transit of KIC 12557548b usingCanada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Wide-field InfraRedCamera (CFHT/WIRCam) at 2.15 mu m and the Kepler space telescope at 0.6 mu m, as well as simultaneous null-detections of the transit by Kepler and HST/WFC3 at 1.4 mu m. Our simultaneous HST/WFC3 and Kepler null-detections provide no evidence for radically different transit depths at these wavelengths. Our simultaneous CFHT/WIRCam detections in the near-infrared and with Kepler in the optical reveal very similar transit depths (the average ratio of the transit depths at similar to 2.15 mu m compared with similar to 0.6 mu m is: 1.02 +/- 0.20). This suggests that if the transits we observe are due to scattering from single-size particles streaming from the planet in a comet-like tail, then the particles must be similar to 0.5 mu m in radius or larger, which would favor that KIC 12557548b is a sub-Mercury rather than super-Mercury mass planet.

Kepler planet candidate KOI-2700b (KIC 8639908b) with an orbital period of 21.84 hours exhibits a distinctly asymmetric transit profile, likely indicative of the emission of dusty effluents, and reminiscent of KIC 1255b. The host star has $T_{\rm eff}$ = 4435 K, M = 0.63 $M_\odot$, and R = 0.57 $R_\odot$, comparable to the parameters ascribed to KIC 12557548. The transit egress can be followed for ~25% of the orbital period, and, if interpreted as extinction from a dusty comet-like tail, indicates a long lifetime for the dust grains of more than a day. We present a semi-physical model for the dust tail attenuation, and fit for the physical parameters contained in that expression. The transit is not sufficiently deep to allow for a study of the transit-to-transit variations, as is the case for KIC 1255b; however, it is clear that the transit depth is slowly monotonically decreasing by a factor of ~2 over the duration of the Kepler mission. The existence of a second star hosting a planet with a dusty comet-like tail would help to show that such objects may be more common and less exotic than originally thought. According to current models, only quite small planets with Mp < 0.03 $M_\oplus$ are likely to release a detectable quantity of dust. Thus, any "normal-looking" transit that is inferred to arise from a rocky planet of radius greater than ~1/2 $R_\oplus$ should not exhibit any hint of a dusty tail. Conversely, if one detects an asymmetric transit, due to a dusty tail, then it will be very difficult to detect the hard body of the planet within the transit because, by necessity, the planet must be quite small (i.e., < 0.3 $R_\oplus$).

Due to forward scattering of direct sunlight in the atmosphere, the circumsolar region closely surrounding the solar disk looks very bright. The radiation coming from this region, the circumsolar radiation, is in large part included in common direct normal irradiance (DNI) measurements, but only partially intercepted by the receivers of focusing collectors. This effect has to be considered in the performance analysis of concentrating collectors in order to avoid overestimation of the intercepted irradiance. At times, the overestimation reaches more than 10% for highly concentrating systems even for sky conditions with relevant DNI above 200W/m(2). The amount of circumsolar radiation varies strongly with time, location and sky conditions. However, no representative sunshape measurements exist for locations that are now of particular interest for concentrating solar power (CSP) or concentrating photovoltaics (CPV). A new sunshape measurement system is developed and analyzed in this study. The system consists of the sun and aureole measurement instrument (SAM), an AERONET sun photometer and postprocessing software. A measurement network is being created with the presented system. The uncertainty of this system is significantly lower than what was obtained with previous devices. In addition, the spectral optical properties of circumsolar radiation are determined. As a result, the necessary information for CSP and CPV systems, and a basis for the development of modeling methods for circumsolar radiation, can now be achieved.

The aureoles around stars caused by thin cirrus limit nighttime measurement opportunities for ground-based astronomy but can provide information on high-altitude ice crystals for climate research. In this paper we attempt to demonstrate quantitatively how this works. Aureole profiles can be followed out to 0.2 degrees from stars and 0.5 degrees from Jupiter. Interpretation of diffracted starlight is similar to that for sunlight, but emphasizes larger particles. Stellar diffraction profiles are very distinctive, typically being approximately flat out to a critical angle followed by gradually steepening power-law falloff with slope less steep than -3. Using the relationship between the phase function for diffraction and the average Fourier transform of the projected area of complex ice crystals we show that defining particle size in terms of average projected area normal to the propagation direction of the starlight leads to a simple, analytic approximation representing large-particle diffraction that is nearly independent of crystal habit. A similar analytic approximation for the diffraction aureole allows it to be separated from the point spread function and the sky background. Multiple scattering is deconvolved using the Hankel transform leading to the diffraction phase function. Application of constrained numerical inversion to the phase function then yields a solution for the particle size distribution in the range between 50 microns and 400 microns. Stellar aureole measurements can provide one of the very few, as well as least expensive, methods for retrieving cirrus microphysical properties from ground-based observations.

Scattering calculations for optically thin cirrus clouds based on retrievals of optical thickness and effective particle size from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua are compared with solar disk radiance and aureole measurements from Visidyne's Sun and Aureole Measurement (SAM) instrument. In the four examples presented, the calculated solar disk radiance differs from the measurement by a factor ranging from 2 to 8. The shape of the aureole radiance profile also differs and indicates that either the effective particle size retrieved by the MODIS daytime cirrus algorithm is too small or there is another problem with the phase functions underlying the MODIS algorithm.

Two methods of determining instrumental scattering for correcting aureolegraph measurements of particulate solar scattering are presented. One involves subtracting measurements made with and without an external occluding ball and the other is a modification of the Langley Plot method and involves extrapolating aureolegraph measurements collected through a large range of solar zenith angles. Examples of internal scattering correction determinations using the latter method show similar power-law dependencies on scattering, but vary by roughly a factor of 8 and suggest that changing aerosol conditions during the determinations render this method problematic. Examples of corrections of scattering profiles using the former method are presented for a range of atmospheric particulate layers from aerosols to cumulus and cirrus clouds.

While knowledge of the impact of aerosols on climate change has improved significantly due to the routine, ground-based, sun photometer measurements of aerosols made at AERONET sites world-wide, the impact of cirrus clouds remains much less certain because they occur high in the atmosphere and are more difficult to measure. This report documents work performed on a Phase I SBIR project to retrieve microphysical properties of cirrus ice crystals from stellar aureole imagery. The Phase I work demonstrates that (1) we have clearly measured stellar aureole profiles; (2) we can follow the aureole profiles out to ~1/4 degree from stars (~1/2 degree from Jupiter); (3) the stellar aureoles from cirrus have very distinctive profiles, being flat out to a critical angle, followed by a steep power-law decline with a slope of ~-3; (4) the profiles are well modeled using exponential size distributions; and (5) the critical angle in the profiles is ~0.12 degrees, (6) indicating that the corresponding critical size ranges from ~150 to ~200 microns. The stage has been set for a Phase II project (1) to proceed to validating the use of stellar aureole measurements for retrieving cirrus particle size distributions using comparisons with optical property retrievals from other, ground-based instruments and (2) to develop an instrument for the routine, automatic measurement of thin cirrus microphysical properties.

This paper describes an improvement in the diffraction approximation used to retrieve the size distribution of atmospheric particles from solar aureole radiance measurements. Normalization using total optical thickness based on measurement of the solar disk radiance is replaced with one based on the aureole profile radiance itself. Retrievals involving model calculations for power-law distributions of water droplets show significant improvement using the new algorithm. Tests involving two empirical particle size distributions, one for cirrus and another for aerosols, also show improvement using the new normalization algorithm. Comparisons of the diffraction approximation algorithms with a numerical inversion algorithm found that the accuracy of the latter was higher for two different bimodal aerosol distributions. The role envisioned for the diffraction approximation is in estimating the size distribution of large particles in clouds and especially cirrus.

This paper describes a simple relationship between the slope of particulate optical depth as a function of wavelength and the size distribution of spherical particles. It is based on approximating extinction using a truncated geometric optics relationship and is applicable when optical depth decreases with wavelength. The new relationship suggests that extinction versus wavelength measurements are most sensitive to particles that are comparable in size to the wavelength. When optical depth is expressed as a power-law function of wavelength, the resulting particle size distribution is also a power-law function of size, with the two exponents reproducing the well-known relationship between the Angstrom and Junge exponents. Examples of applying the new relationship are shown using both numerical calculations based on Mie theory and measurements from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Since the truncated geometric approximation makes no assumptions per se concerning the form of the particle size distribution, it may find application in supplementing solar aureole profile measurements in retrieving the size distributions of particles in thin clouds-for example, cirrus-or when they are present.

This paper describes a newly designed Sun and Aureole Measurement (SAM) aureolegraph and the first results obtained with this instrument. SAM measurements of solar aureoles produced by cirrus and cumulus clouds were taken at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program(ARM) Central Facility in Oklahoma during field experiments conducted in June 2007 and compared with simultaneous measurements from a variety of other ground-based instruments. A theoretical relationship between the slope of the aureole profile and the size distribution of spherical cloud particles is based on approximating scattering as due solely to diffraction, which in turn is approximated using a rectangle function. When the particle size distribution is expressed as a power-law function of radius, the aureole radiance as a function of angle from the center of the solar disk also follows a power law, with the sum of the two powers being -5. This result also holds if diffraction is modeled with an Airy function. The diffraction approximation is applied to SAM measurements with optical depths less than or similar to 2 to derive the effective radii of cloud particles and particle size distributions between similar to 2.5 and similar to 25 mu m. The SAM results yielded information on cloud properties complementary to that obtained with ARM Central Facility instrumentation. A network of automated SAM units [similar to the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) system] would provide a practical means to gain fundamental new information on the global statistical properties of thin (optical depth less than or similar to 10) clouds, thereby providing unique information on the effects of such clouds upon the earth's energy budget.

To understand and model the energetics of the Sun-Earth connection, measurements of specific atmospheric molecules are beneficial. Our objective is to formulate an algorithm to derive temporally varying atmospheric water vapor concentrations as a function of altitude, latitude, and longitude from solar irradiance absorption measurements. The Visidyne SAM instrument is used to study the size distribution of cloud particles. By introducing a spectrometer to the SAM instrument, column water vapor values are produced as an additional data product. A new model algorithm was developed and tested against existing algorithms. Through a least-squares analysis, the new algorithm showed an improvement of a factor of up to 23 over the industry standard. A test was also conducted to ascertain which water absorption bandpass produces the least error. Through these tests an improved model algorithm has been produced.