The Single Scattering Albedo of Martian Atmospheric Dust in the 290-500 nm Region

Details The Single Scattering Albedo of Martian Atmospheric Dust in the 290-500 nm Region The Single Scattering Albedo of Martian Atmospheric Dust in the 290-500 nm Region

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufm.p72a0494w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #P72A-0494

Physics

5405 Atmospheres: Composition And Chemistry, 5465 Rings And Dust, 6213 Dust, 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

Despite multiple previous investigations, the detailed wavelength-dependence of Martian atmospheric dust absorption at ultraviolet (UV) and near-UV wavelengths is not particularly well-known. Several efforts have made some progress (e.g., Pang and Ajello, Icarus, 30, 63, 1977; Clancy et al., JGR, 100, 5251, 1995; Wolff et al., JGR, 104, 9027, 1999), but observational or instrumental constraints have severely limited the amount of detail retrievable. Ideally, one would observe an isolated dust signature with moderate spectral resolution and adequate spectral coverage. In essence, one would like to obtain data of a large-scale, optically-thick dust storm with a well-calibrated spacecraft-based spectrometer. Such a set of data has very recently been obtained, albeit somewhat fortuitously. Using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument to perform high resolution imaging spectroscopy of Mars during the 2001 opposition, the combination of an electronics failure and an unusually early onset of a global dust storm, we have observations of Martian atmospheric dust with a minimal-to-undetectable surface contribution. Our 2001 observations utilized the G430L grating to cover 289 to 590 nm at 0.27 nm/channel. The STIS 0.2 arcec slit was pushbroom-scanned across the 13-16 arcsec diameter planet in ~70 adjacent steps, yielding a 3-dimensional image cube in 1024 wavelengths and at ~20x80 km spatial resolution per spectrum. This was done during four visits on 2001 August 9, 10, 14, and September 4 (LS=211°\ to 227°). We will present the derived dust absorption spectra (i.e., single scattering albedo) which has resulted from our multiple-scattering, radiative transfer analyses of the STIS data. Our results will be compared to analogous efforts of Goguen et al. (personal communication, 2002) using nearly-contemporaneous observations in the 230-300 nm range (STIS/G230L). In addition, in order to better constrain the dust properties (e.g., size, shape) and subsequently isolate the single scattering albedo, our work includes retrievals from Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations (both the thermal infrared and solar-band channel).

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