Lidar Observations of Martian Dust Optical Properties During the Phoenix Mars Mission

Details Lidar Observations of Martian Dust Optical Properties During the Phoenix Mars Mission Lidar Observations of Martian Dust Optical Properties During the Phoenix Mars Mission

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agusm.p23a..05k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2009, abstract #P23A-05

Physics

0305 Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801, 4906), 3311 Clouds And Aerosols, 5210 Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes (0343), 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5464 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

On 25 May 2008 the Phoenix spacecraft landed on the Northern Plains of Mars (68.22oN, 234.25oW), and operated for five months through mid-summer (solar longitude LS=76o to 149o). The lidar instrument on the Phoenix spacecraft measured the backscatter of pulsed light emitted upward into the atmosphere, and provided height resolved measurements of dust that were continuous in time. The essential capability of the lidar was that it could resolve the vertical distribution of the dust that drifted past the landing site. The optical extinction coefficient was derived from the lidar measurements and this provided a measure of the dust loading. Diurnal variations of the extinction coefficient profiles indicate an increase in the dust loading in the afternoon as well as a growth of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height from under 3 km in the morning to above 4 km in the afternoon. In early summer, 35 sols after landing (LS=97o), a dust storm was observed that lifted dust up to 10 km and caused a sharp increase in the dust extinction coefficient and optical depth. The observed dust loading generally decreased after LS=97o. In the latter half of the mission (after LS=117o) there was a regular occurrence of ground fog and clouds within the PBL at night.

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