Observations of Mars Neutral Atmosphere during the Polar Night by the Mars Express Radio Science Experiment

Details Observations of Mars Neutral Atmosphere during the Polar Night by the Mars Express Radio Science Experiment Observations of Mars Neutral Atmosphere during the Polar Night by the Mars Express Radio Science Experiment

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6018t&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #60.18; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.600

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Scientific paper

The Radio Science Experiment on Mars Express (MaRS) sounds the Martian atmophere and ionosphere making use of spacecraft radio signals at 3.6 and 13 cm-wavelength and an Earth-Mars occultation geometry. Vertical profiles of pressure, temperature, and density in the neutral atmosphere are obtained with an altitude resolution of only a few hundred meters. The elliptical orbit of Mars Express permits examination of a large range of local times and locations and therefore can be used to investigate latitudinal, diurnal, and seasonal variations of Mars atmosphere. Daytime atmospheric profiles collected from both hemispheres since March 2004 allow us to study the development of the atmosphere in the early morning and the polar night. The second occultation season, December 2004, produced 32 profiles located in the southern polar latitudes at an average solar longitude of about 130°. Approximately 30 profiles obtained during the fourth occultation season, July 2005-April 2006, provide data on the north polar region at latitudes above 70° and a solar longitude of about 271°.
The polar night at 75° north shows a 142-145 K isothermal atmosphere up to an altitude of 40 km, which is at or close to the condensation line of CO2. A similar behavior is observed during the southern polar night at 80° south, but with a significant warming at longitudes passing through Hellas.
Model calculations of a Martian General Circulation Model (GCM) developed by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique de C.N.R.S. (LMD) support the interpretation of the observed atmospheric phenomena.
The MaRS investigation is funded by the DLR Grant 50QP9909 and by the NASA Mars Program.

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