Vertical aerosol distribution in Mars' atmosphere measured from thermal radiation in the limb.

Details Vertical aerosol distribution in Mars' atmosphere measured from thermal radiation in the limb. Vertical aerosol distribution in Mars' atmosphere measured from thermal radiation in the limb.

Nov 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993cosre..31..313m&link_type=abstract

Cosmic Res., Vol. 31, No. 3, p. 313 - 330

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Scientific paper

The Phobos 2 spacecraft carries a "Termoskan" scanning radiometer that was used to measure thermal infrared radiation of Mars near its limb where the atmosphere makes a substantial contribution, and beyond the limb where only the atmosphere radiates. In this paper the authors interpret the infrared intensity profiles measured on March 26, 1989. They show that aerosol makes the biggest contribution outside the limb. The radiating medium can be divided into two sections: one that varies exponentially with altitude up to about 10 km, and a layered component (two layers a few kilometers thick at 23 km and 33 km). The exponential component appears to be due primarily to mineral dust; the layered component is due to ice particles. At 11.25 μm the total optical depth due to the exponential component is about 0.06, which corresponds to a visual optical depth of 0.13. This estimate agrees with three other remote optical experiments aboard Phobos 2. It is substantially smaller than the depth predicted on the basis of the Viking landers. There may have been a global change in the dust content of Mars' atmosphere over a 10 year period. The ice layers at 23 - 33 km have optical depths of 0.005 - 0.02. The total mass of mineral dust in a column of unit cross section is estimated to be about 5·10-5g/cm-3, and the total ice mass in the ice layers is estimated to be about 1·10-5g/cm-3. The number density of dust particles near the surface is approximately 2 cm-3.

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