Observations of H2O, H218O and CO in Mars with Odin

Details Observations of H2O, H218O and CO in Mars with Odin Observations of H2O, H218O and CO in Mars with Odin

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sf2a.conf...67b&link_type=abstract

SF2A-2004: Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise, meeting held in Paris, France, June 14-18, 2004. Edited by F. Combes, D. Barret

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Odin is a small astronomy and aeronomy space observatory, equipped with a 1.1 m radiometer and 5 receivers, comprising 4 tunable submillimetric receivers in the 480--560 GHz range. It was launched successfully in Sun-synchronized Earth orbit on 20 February 2001. Due to solar elongation constraints, Odin could not observe the red planet in August 2003, but did it twice, on June 14--18 and November 2--9. Thanks to the versatility of its system it has been each time possible to get a full 4 GHz wide spectrum of the fundamental water line at 557 GHz. The presence of water vapour in Mars atmosphere has been known for several decades but it had never been observed with both a high spectral resolution (1 MHz) and a wide band of over 4 GHz allowing us to see the line entirely. The spectrum is actually the result of five consecutive different tunings each covering 1 GHz. In parallel, other receivers were used to look for O2 at 487 GHz in June, and to measure the line profile of H218O and CO(5--4) in November. Although Odin lacks spatial resolution (its beam measures 2.2' while Mars apparent diameter was around 14''), these results are complementary to the spacecraft observations in Mars orbit. Thanks to the simultaneous observation of strong (H2O at 557 GHz) and weaker (H218O at 548 GHz) water vapour lines with high spectral resolution, it will be possible to constrain the average vertical distribution of water vapour in Mars atmosphere. The CO(5--4) line will also provide further constraint on the atmosphere vertical temperature profile. In addition, strong seasonal variations take place on Mars, and the two Odin observations were obtained at the time of martian southern spring (June) and southern summer (November) when most of the seasonal southern polar cap had melted. Results on the average amount of water vapour responsible for the absorption line profile and its vertical distribution will be given.

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