Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.6823t&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #68.23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Phoenix and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) missions collaborated in an unprecedented campaign to observe the northern polar region summer atmosphere throughout the Phoenix mission (May 25 - Nov. 2, 2008; Ls=76°-150°) and slightly beyond ( Ls=158°). Five atmospherically-related campaigns were defined a priori and were executed on 37 separate Martian days (sols). Phoenix and MRO observed the atmosphere near simultaneously. We describe the observation strategy and history, the participating experiments, and some initial results. We find that there is general agreement between measurements from different instruments and platforms, and that complementary measurements provide a consistent picture of the atmosphere. The relatively high degree of dust variability seen between Ls=76°-100° is confined to <10 km, but after Ls=110° variability above 10 km increases. Seasonal water abundance behavior matches with historical measurements. Winds aloft, as measured by cloud motions, showed the same seasonally consistent, diurnal rotation as the winds measured at the lander. A diurnal cycle recorded from Ls 108.3º-109.1º, in which a dust front was approaching the Phoenix lander, was examined in detail. Cloud heights indicated that areas of active lifting have dust concentrated lower in the atmosphere, whereas away from those locations, dust layers were found at higher altitudes. Discrete dust and water-ice layers were seen. Water vapor column abundances compared to near-surface water vapor pressure indicate that water is not well mixed from the surface to a cloud condensation height and that the depth of the layer that exchanges diurnally with the surface is 0.5-1 km. These results will be presented in more detail.
Phoenix/MRO Coordinated Atmospheric Campaign Team
Tamppari Leslie
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