Mars: Experimental study of albedo changes caused by dust fallout

Abstract

An experimental study was undertaken to determine how the spectral and photometric properties of representative Martian areas are affected by fallout of atmospheric dust suspended during dust forms. A laboratory apparatus was used to simulate the uniform fallout and deposition of particles 1 to 5 μm in diameter. Spectral measurements from 0.4- to 1.2-μm wavelengths and photometric measurements at several wavelengths were made for a number of Mars-analog materials before and after deposition of 6 × 10 −5 to 1.5 × 10 −3 g/cm 2 of simulated fallout. These results indicate that the spectral and photometric properties of Martian regions can be affected significantly even by minute amounts of fallout. For instance, the reflectance at 0.56 μm of an average dark area will increase by 35% after deposition of only 9 × 10 −5 g/cm 2, and by 70% after deposition of 1.5 × 10 −4 g/cm 2. Thus the fallout from even one dust storm season (∼2 × 10 −3 g/cm 2) is sufficient to change significantly the spectral and photometric characteristics of the substrate material, if the fallout were ubiquitous over the surface and if no competing processes of dust removal from surface grains occured.