Coordinated Analyses of Orbital and Spirit Rover Data to Characterize the Nature of Surface Materials in Gusev Crater, Mars

Details Coordinated Analyses of Orbital and Spirit Rover Data to Characterize the Nature of Surface Materials in Gusev Crater, Mars Coordinated Analyses of Orbital and Spirit Rover Data to Characterize the Nature of Surface Materials in Gusev Crater, Mars

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p23d0095l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P23D-0095

Other

5464 Remote Sensing, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties

Scientific paper

OMEGA data (0.4 to 2.7 μm), thermal inertia (TI) maps generated from THEMIS and TES data, and MOC imagery covering the ~7 km of Spirit traverses and plains to the north and south were evaluated to understand the nature of surface materials exposed on the floor of Gusev Crater. Results indicate that plains within at least several hundred kilometers north and south of the Spirit site are dominated by two aeolian components: basaltic sand and a spatially variable dust cover. Negative correlations between 1 μm albedo from OMEGA and TI data show that the dust cover in some places is thicker than the expected diurnal thermal wave depth (~1 cm) whereas in other places it is thin enough to allow the underlying basaltic sand signature to partially control the signatures. A positive correlation between the absolute value of the 1.5 to 2.5 μm reflectance slope (flat to negative) from OMEGA data and TI reinforce the thin nature of the dust cover for low albedo areas. The reflectance patterns are consistent with a thin (<~ 100 μm) dust cover for dark areas that becomes more translucent or forward scattering at longer wavelengths, thereby converging to the lower albedo of the underlying pyroxene-bearing basalt sands. These inferences are consistent with results from analyses of data collected by Spirit. Dust devils are inferred to efficiently remove aeolian dust that builds up over time in the plains. The lack of dust devils that are able to make their way across the Columbia Hills explains the dust-like signature of this rough terrain.

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