What to Cite when Using POSEIDON

General Citations

When using POSEIDON in a paper, please cite MacDonald & Madhusudhan (2017) and MacDonald (2023).

For multidimensional transmission spectra forward models, please cite the TRIDENT model methods paper, MacDonald & Lewis (2022).

For 1D thermal emission forward model or retrievals without scattering (POSEIDON v1.0), please cite Coulombe et al. (2023). For more comprehensive emission models including scattering (from POSEIDON v1.2), please cite Mullens et al. (2024), as described below.

For high-resolution cross correlation retrievals (POSEIDON v1.3), please cite Wang et al. (2025)

Cross Sections (Opacities)

For each molecule included in a model, in your methods section it is good practice to cite the specific molecular line list for each molecule’s opacity. It takes our quantum colleagues years to make some of these line lists, so please do recognise their hard work!

For convenience, we have provided a table on the opacity database page containing NASA ADS links to the relevant citation for every line list used in POSEIDON.

Mie Scattering Aerosols

POSEIDON v1.2 includes Mie scattering from compositionally-specific aerosols. When using any Mie scattering prescription in POSEIDON, please cite Mullens et al. (2024). POSEIDON’s Mie scattering retrieval functionality was first used in Grant et al. (2023), but since a full description of the methodology is provided in Mullens et al. (2024) that is the preferred paper to cite for Mie scattering retrievals with POSEIDON. If you are using the v1.2 version of the aerosol database, consider also citing the LX-MIE algorithm and PLATON, whose algorithms were adapted to precompute Mie-scattering cross sections. If you are using the v1.3.1 version of the aerosol database, consider citing miepython v2.5.5 and Mullens et al. (2025).

The opacity database page provides extensive references for specific aerosols (e.g. refractive index sources). We also provide a comprehensive guide to our aerosol database and sources in the file aerosol_database_readme.txt.

Thermal Scattering and Reflection (Giant Planets)

When using POSEIDON for emission spectroscopy with scattering enabled or for reflection spectroscopy, please cite Mullens et al. (2024). As described in this paper, POSEIDON uses adapted forward models from PICASO, so for reflection spectra please also cite Batalha et al. (2019) and for emission spectra with scattering please cite Mukherjee et al. (2023). The underlying multiple scattering radiative transfer technique used in all these papers is described in Toon et al. (1989).

Thermal Scattering and Reflection (Rocky Planets)

If you use POSEIDON with emitting and reflecting surfaces, or use the surface albedo database, please cite Mullens et al. (2026) (in prep). Also please also cite PICASO v4.0 (Mang et al. (2026).)

If you use POSEIDON for HWO applications, please also consider citing Zelakiewicz et al. (2026).

Pressure-Temperature (P-T) Profiles

POSEIDON includes many P-T profile prescriptions, including:

The ‘Madhu’ profile from Madhusudhan & Seager (2009).
The ‘Guillot’ and ‘Dayside Guillot’ profiles from Guillot (2010).
The ‘Line’ profile from Line et al. (2013).
The ‘Slope’ profile from Piette & Madhusudhan (2021).
The ‘Pelletier’ profile from Pelletier et al. (2021).

Contribution Functions

For contribution functions (transmission or emission), added in POSEIDON v1.2, please cite Mullens et al. (2024).