Abstract
High altitude clouds have been observed in the Martian atmosphere. However, their properties still remain to be characterized. Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is an instrument that measures radiances in the thermal infrared, both in limb and nadir views. It allows us to retrieve vertical profiles of radiance, temperature and aerosols. Using the MCS data and radiative transfer model coupled with an automated inversion routine, we can investigate the chemical composition of the high altitude clouds. We will present the first results on the properties of the clouds. CO2 ice is the best candidate to be the main component of some high altitude clouds due to the most similar spectral variation compared to water ice or dust, in agreement with previous studies. Using cloud composition of contaminated CO2 ice (dust core surrounded by CO2 ice) might improve the fitting result, but further study is needed.
Highlights
Martian climate has been an issue of scientific curiosity for centuries and that clouds exist in Martian atmosphere has been known for some considerable time
We will describe the first results on the properties of the high altitude clouds based on Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) data and using radiative transfer model coupled with an automated inversion routine developed by [4]
We started with temperature and aerosols profiles from Mars Climate Database (MCD) and added a pre-defined CO2 ice profile to get a realistic input for the inversion routine
Summary
This content has been downloaded from IOPscience. Ser. 771 012049 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/771/1/012049) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more. You may be interested in: Influence of clouds on the parameters of images measured by IACT at very high energies Dorota Sobczyska and Wodek Bednarek Nonlocal LTE Irradiated Model Travis S. Pearson et al HIGH RESOLUTION TRANSMISSION SPECTROSCOPY AS A DIAGNOSTIC FOR JOVIAN EXOPLANET ACTOMNOSSTRPAHIENRTESSF: ROM THEORETICAL MODELS Eliza M.-R. Sing et al SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE MID-IR LIGHT CURVES OF NEPTUNE John Stauffer, Mark S. Gizis et al THERMAL EMISSION AND REFLECTED LIGHT SPECTRA OF SUPER EARTHS WITH FLAT TRANSMISSION SCParEoClinTeRVA. Marley et al. L Puspitarini, A Maattanen, T Fouchet, A Kleinboehl, D M Kass, J T Schofield
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