Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p23a1704g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P23A-1704
Physics
[5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars
Scientific paper
HiRISE acquired in March 2011 a color image of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover from orbit that shows an exceptionally bright reflection from the rover solar panels. HiRISE data combined with laboratory measurements of MER solar cell reflectance provide a method for constraining the thickness of dust on the solar panels. Spirit is the brightest object in the HiRISE scene with a reflectance that is about 3 times higher at 500 nm and about 1.5 times higher at 700 and 850 nm than bright outcrop and soil near the rover. The rover is also less red than these nearby materials and less red than a typical Mars dust spectrum modeled with the same geometry and seen through similar atmospheric conditions as the HiRISE image. Lighting and viewing angles for the HiRISE image of Spirit are close to a specular reflection geometry when factoring in the rover orientation, the sun position, and the location of HiRISE during image acquisition. Laboratory photometric measurements of clean and dust-coated MER solar cells show a strong specular reflection for dust coating thicknesses up to at least 45 micrometers. The specular reflection was not present in the laboratory data when the solar cell was covered with about a 135 micrometer thick layer. The dust used in the experiments consisted of less than 10 micrometer sized particles derived from a palagonitic tephra from Mauna Kea that is spectrally similar to Mars dust. A survey of MER Pancam color images acquired by Spirit and Opportunity also shows several examples of specular reflections from the solar panels. These examples correspond to times when the solar cells were moderately clean to dusty as inferred from the amount of power generated by the cells. Specular reflections in Pancam images have been observed when the solar cell output was only 45% that of a dust-free cell. Spirit HiRISE data indicate that the rover was not covered by an optical thick layer of dust because some of the reflected light must have come from the underlying solar panels. The laboratory and HiRISE data suggest that the Spirit solar panels may have had a dust layer on the order of only 10s of micrometers thick. Further investigation of rover image data sets for the presence or absence of specular reflections as correlated with solar cell power output will yield more quantitative information on the amounts of atmospheric dust accumulation throughout the Spirit and Opportunity missions.
Arvidson Ray E.
Cull Selby
Guinness Edward A.
McEwen Alfred S.
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