Assessing the precision on the determination of the Martian CO2 seasonal mass budget from time-variable gravity observations

Details Assessing the precision on the determination of the Martian CO2 seasonal mass budget from time-variable gravity observations Assessing the precision on the determination of the Martian CO2 seasonal mass budget from time-variable gravity observations

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p23a1240r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P23A-1240

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Applications

[5405] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Atmospheres, [5417] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Gravitational Fields, [5462] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Polar Regions, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars

Scientific paper

A relative large amount of the CO2 of the atmosphere of Mars is seasonally exchanged with the surface through the condensation/sublimation process at the polar caps. The associated mass redistribution at planetary scale generates a fine seasonal variation of the gravity field of Mars, allowing for the estimation of the mass budget of the CO2 seasonal cycle at the polar caps. However, to derive this mass budget, the knowledge of the extent and of the CO2 deposit density of the caps is needed in addition to the determination of the time variable gravity field. In this study, the time variable gravity solution is obtained from the Precise Orbit Determination (POD) of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY), and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. All tracking data from the beginning of the nominal mission up to the most recent available extended phases for each spacecraft have been taken into account, thus covering about 5 Martian years. From this dataset, the seasonal variations of the lumped zonal harmonics of degree two and three have been obtained, using the GINS software developed by the CNES and further adapted by Royal Observatory of Belgium for planetary geodesy applications. The extent of the polar caps has been modeled on the basis of the MGS/TES dataset. In addition, the effect of compaction on the volume density of the polar CO2 deposits has been taken into account. Both the time variable gravity solution (i.e. lumped zonal harmonics) and the polar caps model have been compared with outputs of Global Circulation Model (GCM), and with the estimation derived from the HEND data onboard Mars Odyssey, in order to assess the precision on the current estimation of the polar cap CO2 mass budget.

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