A complete climatology of the aerosol vertical distribution on Mars from MEx/SPICAM UV solar occultations

Määttänen, Anni; Listowski, Constantino; Montmessin, Franck; Maltagliati, Luca; Reberac, Aurélie; Joly, Lilian; Bertaux, Jean-Loup

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.12.001

Cited by 75 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…CO 2 ice particles have been detected both in the lower atmosphere (≤ 20 km) during the polar night (Giuranna 2008;Ivanov and Muhleman 2001;Pettengill and Ford 2000) and in the mesosphere (50-100 km) at equatorial latitudes (Clancy et al 2007;Määttänen et al 2013;Montmessin et al 2007).…”

Section: Expected Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

NOMAD, an Integrated Suite of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars Trace Gas Mission: Technical Description, Science Objectives and Expected Performance

Vandaele¹,

Moreno²,

Patel³

et al. 2018

Space Sci Rev

114

117

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The NOMAD ("Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery") spectrometer suite on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has been designed to investigate the comThis paper is dedicated to the memory of M. Allen, V. Formisano, and J. McConnell. position of Mars' atmosphere, with a particular focus on trace gases, clouds and dust. The detection sensitivity for trace gases is considerably improved compared to previous Mars missions, compliant with the science objectives of the TGO mission. This will allow for a major leap in our knowledge and understanding of the Martian atmospheric composition and the related physical and chemical processes. The instrument is a combination of three spectrometers, covering a spectral range from the UV to the mid-IR, and can perform solar occultation, nadir and limb observations. In this paper, we present the science objectives of the instrument and explain the technical principles of the three spectrometers. We also discuss the expected performance of the instrument in terms of spatial and temporal coverage and detection sensitivity.

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Section: Expected Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

NOMAD, an Integrated Suite of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars Trace Gas Mission: Technical Description, Science Objectives and Expected Performance

Vandaele¹,

Moreno²,

Patel³

et al. 2018

Space Sci Rev

114

117

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“…The GCM fails to form dust‐detached layers and might also miss the actual distribution of dust above the hygropause [ Heavens et al , ; Määttänen et al , ] that coexists with supersaturated water vapor [ Maltagliati et al , ]. Therefore, we can wonder whether a supersaturated ratio above 10 3 is realistic or not.…”

Section: Analysis and Comparison With Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global climate modeling of the Martian water cycle with improved microphysics and radiatively active water ice clouds

Navarro

Madeleine

Forget

et al. 2014

J. Geophys. Res. Planets

206

249

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Water ice clouds play a key role in the radiative transfer of the Martian atmosphere, impacting its thermal structure, its circulation, and, in turn, the water cycle. Recent studies including the radiative effects of clouds in global climate models (GCMs) have found that the corresponding feedbacks amplify the model defaults. In particular, it prevents models with simple microphysics from reproducing even the basic characteristics of the water cycle. Within that context, we propose a new implementation of the water cycle in GCMs, including a detailed cloud microphysics taking into account nucleation on dust particles, ice particle growth, and scavenging of dust particles due to the condensation of ice. We implement these new methods in the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique GCM and find satisfying agreement with the Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations of both water vapor and cloud opacities, with a significant improvement when compared to GCMs taking into account radiative effects of water ice clouds without this implementation. However, a lack of water vapor in the tropics after Ls = 180° is persistent in simulations compared to observations, as a consequence of aphelion cloud radiative effects strengthening the Hadley cell. Our improvements also allow us to explore questions raised by recent observations of the Martian atmosphere. Supersaturation above the hygropause is predicted in line with Spectroscopy for Investigation of Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Mars observations. The model also suggests for the first time that the scavenging of dust by water ice clouds alone fails to fully account for the detached dust layers observed by the Mars Climate Sounder.

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“…However, those canonical values have most often been best‐fit values to the column‐integrated dust or water ice observations and are thus biased to the lowest altitudes where aerosol opacity is highest. Indeed, it is well known that aerosol particle size is not constant in time or space, and variations in particle size have been observed with both smaller [ Rannou et al ., ; Määttänen et al ., ] and larger particle sizes [ Clancy et al ., , ] than the canonical column‐averaged and seasonally averaged values.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The vertical distribution of Martian aerosol particle size

2014

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Using approximately 410 limb-viewing observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), we retrieve the vertical distribution of Martian dust and water ice aerosol particle sizes. We find that dust particles have an effective radius of 1.0 μm over much of the atmospheric column below 40 km throughout the Martian year. This includes the detached tropical dust layers detected in previous studies. Little to no variation with height is seen in dust particle size. Water ice clouds within the aphelion cloud belt exhibit a strong sorting of particle size with height, however, and the effective radii range from >3 μm below 20 km to near 1.0 μm at 40 km altitude. Conversely, water ice clouds in the seasonal polar hoods show a near-uniform particle size with an effective radius of approximately 1.5 μm throughout the atmospheric column.

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A complete climatology of the aerosol vertical distribution on Mars from MEx/SPICAM UV solar occultations

Cited by 75 publications

References 54 publications

NOMAD, an Integrated Suite of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars Trace Gas Mission: Technical Description, Science Objectives and Expected Performance

NOMAD, an Integrated Suite of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars Trace Gas Mission: Technical Description, Science Objectives and Expected Performance

Global climate modeling of the Martian water cycle with improved microphysics and radiatively active water ice clouds

The vertical distribution of Martian aerosol particle size

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