Optimising spectroscopic observations of transiting exoplanets

Abstract

Context. When observing the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets using high-resolution spectroscopy, the aim is to detect well-resolved spectral features with high signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns), as is possible today with modern spectrographs. However, obtaining such high-quality observations comes with a trade-off: a lower cadence of fewer, longer exposures across the transit collects more photons thanks to reduced overheads, enhancing the S/N of each observation, while a higher cadence of several shorter exposures minimises spectral feature smearing due to the continuously changing radial velocity of the planet. Aims. Considering that maximising S/N and minimising smearing are both beneficial to analysis, there is a need to identify the optimal compromise between the two for a given target. In this work, we aim to establish where this compromise lies for a typical exoplanet transit observation in order to benefit future data collection and subsequent interpretation. Methods. We modelled real transit events based on targets as they would be observed with VLT/CRIRES+ at Paranal Observatory, Chile. Creating four hypothetical scenarios, we simulated each set of transmission spectra across 100 realisations of the same transit event in order to vary the time resolution only. We removed telluric and stellar lines from these data sets using the SYSREM algorithm and analysed them through cross-correlation with model templates, measuring how successfully each time resolution and case detected the planetary signal and exploring how the results vary. Results. We demonstrate that there is a continuous change in the significance of the cross-correlation detection based on the trade-off between high and low time resolutions, and that, averaged over a large number of realisations, the function of this significance has clear maxima. The strength and location of these maxima vary depending on, for example, planet system parameters, instrumentation, and the number of removal iterations. We discuss why observers should therefore take several factors into account using a strategy akin to the ‘exposure triangle’ employed in traditional photography where a balance must be struck by considering the full context of the observation. Our method is robust and may be employed by observers to estimate the best observational strategies for other targets.