Omega/mars Express: Water Vapour Daily Variability On Southern Summer Over The South Pole.

Details Omega/mars Express: Water Vapour Daily Variability On Southern Summer Over The South Pole. Omega/mars Express: Water Vapour Daily Variability On Southern Summer Over The South Pole.

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.3104m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #31.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.472

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Polar Regions are peculiar locations where the effect of local time is easier to be observed, because some orbits before and after, crossing the pole, correspond to a very different local hours.
We have developed a study on the daily variability of water vapour over the South Pole region around southern summer solstice (Ls=250° - 270°), characterized by the absence of water ice on the surface (undetected by OMEGA), a maximum abundance of water vapour in the air (reaching 15 ppt-μm) and an estimated temperature and pressure (from the EMCD) close to the saturation.
We cover this region and period with several orbits of Mars Express and all these OMEGA data show a clear enhancement of the water vapour by a rate of production reaching 0.5 ppt-µm/hour during the day (from 5 AM to 5 PM).
Water vapor column density displays a diurnal dependence, going from 5 - 10 ppt-µum on the morning side to 15 - 18 ppt-µum on the evening. We also detect restricted and well delimited regions of sublimation, and in particular a river like form. These results suggest the following scenario: in the morning the water ice is condensed on/under the surface; as soon as it is illuminated by the Sun, the temperature difference makes it sublimate; the production continues up to the evening with a "quasi" constant rate; the evening observations are characterized by a homogeneity of the water vapour which could be explained by a mixing of the atmosphere which redistributes the sublimated morning water vapour in a few hours.
The lack of data in the late evening (without solar illumination) does not allow to argue on a possible condensation during the night, however it is the most plausible explanation to the low value of water vapour content in the early morning.

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