Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2002-06-18
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
7 pages, 7 figures. A&A, accepted 6 May 2002
Scientific paper
10.1051/0004-6361:20020933
We report spectroscopic observations (400 to 800nm, R = approx 100) of Earthshine in June, July and October 2001 from which normalised Earth albedo spectra have been derived. The resulting spectra clearly show the blue colour of the Earth due to Rayleigh diffusion in its atmosphere. They also show the signatures of oxygen, ozone and water vapour. We tried to extract from these spectra the signature of Earth vegetation. A variable signal (4 to 10 +/-3%) around 700nm has been measured in the Earth albedo. It is interpreted as being due to the vegetation red edge, expected to be between 2 to 10% of the Earth albedo at 700nm, depending on models. We discuss the primary goal of the present observations: their application to the detection of vegetation-like biosignatures on extrasolar planets.
Arnold Luc
Gillet Sophie
Lardiere Oliver
Riaud Pierre
Schneider Jeff
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