Abstract
The atmospheric dust is an important factor in the evolution of the Martian climate and has a major impact on the scientific exploration of the Martian lander or rover and its payload. This paper used remote sensing images to calculate atmospheric optical depth that characterizes the spatial distribution of the atmospheric dust of Mars. The optical depth calculated by the images of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) in the inspection area of the Spirit rover had a similar temporal variation to the optical depth directly measured by the Spirit rover from the sunlight decay. We also used the HiRISE images to acquire the seasonal variation of optical depths in the candidate landing area of China’s Mars Mission (Tianwen-1). The results have shown that the seasonal pattern of the optical depth in the candidate landing area is consistent with the dust storm sequences in this area. After Tianwen-1 enters the orbit around Mars, the images collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Camera (MoRIC), and the High Resolution Imaging Camera (HiRIC) can be used to study the atmospheric optical depth in the candidate landing area, providing reference for the safe landing and operation of the lander and rover.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
They compared the results with the measurement of optical depth obtained by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and demonstrated that the apparent albedo variations on the Martian surface were consistent with the variations of the optical depth of atmospheric dust in the corresponding area, and the construction of the look-up table involved radiation parameters, observation geometry, surface reflectance, and detailed atmospheric aerosol model
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) red images of in the candidate landing area of China’s Mars Mission (Tianwen-1) were collected, and the optical depth of this area was calculated by using the shadow method based on these remote sensing images, to obtain the temporal variation of the optical depth in this area
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Vincendon et al [10] used the Monte Carlo method to calculate the surface albedo based on OMEGA/Mars Express dataset of low to mid-latitude regions on the Martian surface, and used the look-up table to retrieve optical depth They compared the results with the measurement of optical depth obtained by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and demonstrated that the apparent albedo variations on the Martian surface were consistent with the variations of the optical depth of atmospheric dust in the corresponding area, and the construction of the look-up table involved radiation parameters, observation geometry, surface reflectance, and detailed atmospheric aerosol model.
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