Despite the exponential growth in the known exoplanet population, we still know very little about these worlds beyond their orbits, masses, and/or radii. Transit and eclipse observations with ground- and space-based (HST, Spitzer) facilities have provided important insights into exoplanet atmospheric composition and thermal structure. The majority of transiting exoplanets amenable to atmospheric characterization observations orbit close to their host stars, well within the tidal locking radius of their host stars. This orbital configuration naturally leads to large atmospheric thermal gradients that make it difficult to capture the true nature of a planet’s atmosphere with transit and eclipse observations alone. Phase-curve, eclipse-mapping, and transit-mapping observations require a greater level of precision, but provide a window into the fundamentally three-dimensional nature of exoplanet atmospheres. Here I will review recent result of phase-curve and eclipse-mapping observational campaigns with Spitzer and discuss prospects for probing planets using such techniques with JWST. I will also peer into the future of exoplanet atmospheric characterization with WFIRST, which will provide spectra of directly imaged exoplanets near the habitable zones of their host stars.
