P080-0004
Preparing for EMIRS: Utilizing the EMIRS Simulator to Help Develop a Retrieval Algorithm for Aerosols in Mars Atmosphere.

Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Khalid Mohammad Badri1, Michael D Smith2, Christopher S Edwards3, Eman Saeed Altunaiji1, Philip R Christensen4, Suhail AlMheiri1 and Heather Reed5, (1)Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Northern Arizona University, Astronomy and Planetary Science, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (4)Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, AZ, United States, (5)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, United States
Abstract:
The Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) Simulator is a forward radiative transfer model that has been developed to simulate the expected thermal-infrared spectrum from the surface and atmosphere of Mars utilizing input data from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) and the Mars Climate Database (MCD). The EMIRS simulator is being used to characterize the expected uncertainty in atmospheric quantities that will be retrieved by EMIRS and to help plan EMIRS observations. This analysis will be used to guide development of retrieval algorithms for dust and water ice optical depth using observations from the EMIRS thermal-IR spectrometer.

The EMIRS Simulator uses a discrete ordinates formulation to treat multiple scattering by aerosols. As a key part of the development of the EMIRS Simulator, we have determined the minimum number of radiation streams used in the discrete ordinates formulation of the radiative transfer that are needed to accurately model aerosols in the Mars atmosphere to within a fraction of the measured EMIRS instrument noise level. The diurnal and seasonal variations of the expected uncertainty of retrieved parameters and the minimum number of radiation streams are key quantities to consider as the algorithms are developed for the retrieval of aerosol and water ice optical depth from thermal-IR spectra. We present here the expected uncertainty in aerosol optical depth from EMIRS observations and the minimum number of radiation streams required as a function of season, latitude, longitude and local time.

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) will launch in July 2020 to explore the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere on a global scale. The EMIRS instrument is an interferometric thermal infrared spectrometer developed by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and Arizona State University (ASU). It builds on a long heritage of thermal infrared spectrometers designed, built, and managed by ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility, including the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) instruments.

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