Mars Aerosol Studies with the MGS TES Emission Phase Function Observations: Opacities, Particle Sizes, and Ice Cloud Types

Details Mars Aerosol Studies with the MGS TES Emission Phase Function Observations: Opacities, Particle Sizes, and Ice Cloud Types Mars Aerosol Studies with the MGS TES Emission Phase Function Observations: Opacities, Particle Sizes, and Ice Cloud Types

Nov 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.3406w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #34.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1098

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

A full Mars year (1999-2001) of emission phase function (EPF) observations from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) provide the most complete study of Mars dust and ice aerosol properties to date. TES visible (solar band average) and infrared spectral EPF sequences are analyzed self-consistently with detailed multiple scattering radiative transfer codes. As a consequence of the combined angular and wavelength coverage, we are able to define two distinct ice cloud types at 45\arcdeg S-45\arcdeg N latitudes on Mars. Type I ice clouds exhibit small particle sizes (1-2 \micron\ radii), as well as a broad, deep minimum in side-scattering that are potentially indicative of aligned ice grains. Type I ice aerosols are most prevalent in the southern hemisphere during Mars aphelion, but also appear more widely distributed in season and latitude as topographic and high altitude (>20 km) ice hazes. Type II ice clouds exhibit larger particle sizes (3-5 \micron) and a much narrower side-scattering minimum, indicative of poorer grain alignment or a change in particle shape relative to the type I ice clouds. Type II ice clouds appear most prominently in the northern subtropical aphelion cloud belt, where relatively low altitudes water vapor saturation (10 km) coincide with strong advective transport. Retrieved dust particle radii of 1.5-1.8 \micron\ are consistent with Pathfinder and recent Viking/Mariner 9 reanalyses. Our analyses also find EPF-derived dust single scattering albedos (ssa) in agreement with those from Pathfinder. Spatial and seasonal changes in the dust ssa (0.92-0.95, solar band average) and phase functions suggest possible dust property variations, but may also be a consequence of variable high altitude ice hazes. The annual variations of both dust and ice clouds at 45S-45N latitudes are predominately orbital rather than seasonal in character and have shown remarkable repeatability during the portions of two Mars years observed by MGS.

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