A Survey of Model Fits to 300 L and T Dwarfs

Brown Dwarfs are easily accessible laboratories for studying the physics and chemistry of planetary atmospheres and refining the theoretical models we use for studying exoplanets.  We recently published a paper where we fit 1.0-2.5 micron spectra of 300 L and T dwarfs using the Sonora models and a subset of the Phoenix models. The intent of this study was to understand how cloud opacity and disequilibrium chemistry impact the spectral energy distribution for objects ranging from 2400 K down to 800 K. We found that clouds have a more significant impact on the near-infrared spectra than disequilibrium chemistry, and that the silicate clouds still influence the near-infrared spectrum through the late T-dwarfs.  We also identified a few families of objects with spectral features that deviate from the benchmark brown dwarfs used for spectral classification.  Further inspection into these families suggest that possible combinations of binarity, cloud clearing, and vertical mixing could be leading to the different spectral morphologies. I will present some of the results from our paper and follow-up work we are doing to extend this study to longer wavelengths, cooler temperatures, and possible application to exoplanet atmospheres.