Probing Martian Atmospheric Structure With Sunset And Twilight Imaging

Details Probing Martian Atmospheric Structure With Sunset And Twilight Imaging Probing Martian Atmospheric Structure With Sunset And Twilight Imaging

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4209l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #42.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1042

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We study the vertical distribution of dust at the two Mars rover landing sites using Pancam images. The Martian twilight can be imaged more than 2 hours after the sun has set due to forward scattering of sunlight by atmospheric dust. That scattering must start high in the atmosphere, as "noctilucent” dust regions. Thus, the fall-off of brightness with time is somewhat diagnostic of the vertical distribution of dust over several scale heights from the surface. Closer to, and shortly before, sunset, the atmospheric imaging becomes increasingly sensitive to low-altitude dust. Analysis of sky images as the Sun sets shows that brightness is sensitive to dust variations in and around the boundary layer. Specifically, our proof-of-concept data set is modeled with a factor of several dust concentration discontinuity around 10 km altitude at each site. The sense of the discontinuity is opposite at the two sites, with more dust in the boundary layer at the dusty Gusev site and more dust in the free atmosphere above the Meridiani site.
This work was supported by the NASA Mars Exploration Project Participating Scientist Program.

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