  The formation of clouds affects brown dwarf and planetary atmospheres of
nearly all effective temperatures. Iron and silicate condense in L dwarf
atmospheres and dissipate at the L/T transition. Minor species such as sulfides
and salts condense in mid-late T dwarfs. For brown dwarfs below Teff=450 K,
water condenses in the upper atmosphere to form ice clouds. Currently over a
dozen objects in this temperature range have been discovered, and few previous
theoretical studies have addressed the effect of water clouds on brown dwarf or
exoplanetary spectra. Here we present a new grid of models that include the
effect of water cloud opacity. We find that they become optically thick in
objects below Teff=350-375 K. Unlike refractory cloud materials, water ice
particles are significantly non-gray absorbers; they predominantly scatter at
optical wavelengths through J band and absorb in the infrared with prominent
features, the strongest of which is at 2.8 microns. H2O, NH3, CH4, and H2 CIA
are dominant opacity sources; less abundant species such as may also be
detectable, including the alkalis, H2S, and PH3. PH3, which has been detected
in Jupiter, is expected to have a strong signature in the mid-infrared at 4.3
microns in Y dwarfs around Teff=450 K; if disequilibrium chemistry increases
the abundance of PH3, it may be detectable over a wider effective temperature
range than models predict. We show results incorporating disequilibrium
nitrogen and carbon chemistry and predict signatures of low gravity in
planetary- mass objects. Lastly, we make predictions for the observability of Y
dwarfs and planets with existing and future instruments including the James
Webb Space Telescope and Gemini Planet Imager.
