Investigating the Impact of the Atmospheric State on Derived Thermophysical Properties of the Martian Surface.

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to explore the effects of the Martian atmosphere on derived surface properties (such as albedo and thermal inertia) using the KRC thermal model. Here we produce a systematic set of surface temperatures and bolometric albedos under varying atmospheric parameters, such as dust opacity, single scattering albedo of the dust, asymmetry parameter, etc. We will study selected surface observations from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) to characterize the effect. This study will explore the sensitivity of the KRC model to changing atmospheric conditions. We identified two different geographic locations on Mars to compare and contrast our results. These two regions were chosen as ‘endmembers’ to help constrain any variations we observed where one region had low thermal inertia and high albedo materials, the other had a higher thermal inertia and low albedo materials. Our goal is to continue this study using the diurnal observations of Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) and Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) from the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) once at Mars.

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) is set to be launched in summer 2020, is the first Arab Islamic planetary mission to explore a planet other than Earth. Its goal is to provide an improved understanding of the dynamics in the Martian atmosphere on a global scale while sampling both diurnally and seasonally using three instruments onboard a spacecraft named the Hope Probe. Two of EMM’s instruments, the EXI and EMIRS, will focus on the lower atmosphere. The third instrument, Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), will focus on studying Martian thermosphere and exosphere. The combination of instruments and the temporal and spatial sampling of the mission will be suited to perform studies to seek to better understand the relationship between the atmosphere and surface.