SETI in Rocky Exoplanets: Narrowing the Search with Climate Models

The quest for inhabited worlds beyond the Solar System is focussed on rocky exoplanets, many of which are being discovered via transit and radial-velocity surveys. The detection of life in such planets via atmospheric biosignatures is challenging and ambient conditions that maximize the production and detectability of atmospheric biosignatures should be preferred in the selection of targets for spectroscopic observations. In this presentation we discuss how climate models that predict the temperature distribution on the planetary surface and the absorption properties of the planetary atmosphere can be used to narrow the search for exoplanets able to sustain multicellular organisms and hence, potentially, intelligent life.