Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p41a..04j&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P41A-04
Physics
5460 Physical Properties Of Materials, 5464 Remote Sensing, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Knowledge of the physical properties of the martian surface at centimeter-to-meter scales is important for understanding the recent history of the surface, for interpreting compositional information that relates to a complex mixture of rock and fine components, and for selecting interesting and safe sites for in situ investigation on lander and rover missions. MGS TES nighttime temperature measurements have been used to derive thermal inertia over a large fraction of the martian surface. These measurements provide information on the physical structure of the upper decimeter of the surface, at several-kilometer horizontal resolution. Results to date indicate the occurrence of substantial spatial variations in thermal inertia, correlating in complex and non-unique ways with geomorphology and geology derived from visible images. Some of the most interesting areas have values corresponding to a thermal conductivity that is an order of magnitude greater than that at the Viking and Pathfinder landing sites; this suggests that these surfaces represent a fundamentally different type of structure. We are using these data as input into site selection for the '03 MER rovers. The Mars Odyssey THEMIS instrument will obtain nighttime temperature measurements at ~100-m resolution, or 2000x smaller spatial scales than were obtained from TES. At this resolution, we expect to see fundamentally different behavior, with surface structure dominated by local control rather than intermediate- or regional-scale processes. Although we will derive thermal inertia values from these data, their accuracy will be diminished at least initially due to lack of albedo or daytime measurements at the same spatial scale. However, we will be able to interpret the spatial variations that we expect to see in images of nighttime temperature in terms of variations of surface properties. Using the landing sites as ground truth, we anticipate being able to map out surface structure at 100-m scales over a large fraction of the planet.
Christensen Per Rex
Jakosky Bruce M.
Mellon Michael T.
Pelkey Shannon M.
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