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We quantify the effects of refraction in transit transmission spectroscopy onspectral absorption features and on temporal variations that could be used toobtain altitude-dependent spectra for planets orbiting stars of differentstellar types. We validate our model against altitude-dependent transmissionspectra of the Earth from ATMOS and against lunar eclipse spectra from Palle etal. (2009). We perform detectability studies to show the potential effects ofrefraction on hypothetical observations of Earth analogs with the James WebbSpace Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSPEC). Due to refraction,there will be a maximum tangent pressure level that can be probed duringtransit for each given planet-star system. We show that because of refraction,for an Earth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a Sun-like staronly the top 0.3 bars of the atmosphere can be probed, leading to a decrease inthe signal to noise ratio (SNR) of absorption features by 60%, while for anEarth-analog planet orbiting in the habitable zone of an M5V star it ispossible to probe almost the entire atmosphere with minimal decreases in SNR.We also show that refraction can result in temporal variations in the transittransmission spectrum which may provide a way to obtain altitude-dependentspectra of exoplanet atmospheres. Additionally, the variations prior to ingressand subsequent to egress provide a way to probe pressures greater than themaximum tangent pressure that can be probed during transit. Therefore, probingthe maximum range of atmospheric altitudes, and in particular the near-surfaceenvironment of an Earth-analog exoplanet, will require looking atout-of-transit refracted light in addition to the in-transit spectrum.

The Effects of Refraction on Transit Transmission Spectroscopy: Application to Earth-like Exoplanets