Spectral Evolution of an Earth-like Planet

We have developed a characterization of the geological evolution of the Earth's atmosphere and surface in order to model the observable spectra of an Earth-like planet through its geological history. These calculations are designed to guide the interpretation of an observed spectrum of such a planet by future instruments that will characterize exoplanets. Our models focus on planetary environmental characteristics whose resultant spectral features can be used to imply habitability or the presence of life. These features are generated by H₂O, CO₂, CH₄, O₂, O₃, N₂O, and vegetation-like surface albedos. We chose six geological epochs to characterize. These epochs exhibit a wide range in abundance for these molecules, ranging from a CO₂-rich early atmosphere, to a CO₂/CH₄-rich atmosphere around 2 billion years ago, to a present-day atmosphere. We analyzed the spectra to quantify the strength of each important spectral feature in both the visible and thermal infrared spectral regions, and the resolutions required to optimally detect the features for each epoch. We find a wide range of spectral resolutions required for observing the different features. For example, H₂O and O₃ can be observed with relatively low resolution, while O₂ and N₂O require higher resolution. We also find that the inclusion of clouds in our models significantly affects both the strengths of all spectral features and the resolutions required to observe all these.