Seasonal Mapping of Ozone in the Middle Atmosphere of Mars

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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New observations of Mars' atmosphere were taken at NASA's IRTF on Jan. 11-15, 2004 (Ls ˜ 333 degrees). Photolysis of ozone in Mars' atmosphere by UV sunlight (Hartley bands) produces a singlet-Delta state of O2; emissions from this state (1.27 μ m band) are used as a tracer for atmospheric ozone above ˜ 20 km since the singlet-Delta state is quench by carbon dioxide at lower altitudes[1]. We used CSHELL (0.5 arc-sec slit width, resolving power ˜ 40000) on the IRTF for these observations. The slit was oriented both north-south and east-west on Mars. For both orientations, no detectible emission from the singlet Delta state of O2 was observed. This is similar to results obtained on Jan 8-12, 2002 (Ls ˜ 306 degrees), but is drastically different from measurements of March 18-24, 2003 (Ls ˜ 155 degrees) when a strong singlet-Delta emission was observed in the southern hemisphere of Mars; a 2-D map from this date will be presented along with maps taken at different seasonal dates. This is part of a larger project that began in 1997. We are currently studying the ratio between HDO and H2O, and the isotopic forms of other gases such as CO2 in Mars' atmosphere.
This project was partially funded through grant from NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program (RTOP 344-32-51-96 to M. J. Mumma) and NSF RUI Program (AST-0205397 to R. E. Novak).
[1] Novak, R. E. et al. (2002), Icarus 158, 14-23.

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