München 2019 – scientific programme

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SYSA: Symposium Remote Sensing of Planetary Atmospheres

SYSA 1: Remote Sensing of Planetary Atmospheres

SYSA 1.3: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 15:00–15:30, Plenarsaal

Infrared Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere of Mars — •Armin Kleinböhl — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

Infrared remote sensing has provided the most comprehensive information on the martian atmosphere to date. Atmospheric structure and aerosol loading are typically measured by thermal infrared spectrometry or radiometry in nadir or limb geometries, while measurements of atmospheric constituents often rely on the sun as a light source, either in nadir or solar occultation geometry. Thermal infrared sounding of temperature relies on the 15 micron absorption band of the CO2 molecule as CO2 is the main constituent of the martian atmosphere and its abundance is well known. Thermal infrared temperature sounding at Mars goes back to Mariner 9, which arrived in 1971 and was the first spacecraft orbiting Mars. Since then several thermal infrared sounders have been surveying the martian atmosphere from orbiting spacecraft. The most comprehensive dataset originates from the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived in 2006 and has been operating since then. MCS is a passive, 9-channel infrared radiometer that views the martian atmosphere in limb and on-planet geometries. It has established a global climatology of temperature, dust, and water ice profiles that spans 6 Mars years and is still being continued. The most recent addition to the fleet of Mars orbiters is the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which carries instrumentation for thermal infrared sounding as well as solar occultation spectrometry.