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      Dust aerosols above the south polar cap of Mars as seen by OMEGA

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          Abstract

          The time evolution of atmospheric dust at high southern latitudes on Mars has been determined using observations of the south seasonal cap acquired in the near infrared (1-2.65 {\mu}m) by OMEGA/Mars Express in 2005. Observations at different solar zenith angles and one EPF sequence demonstrate that the reflectance in the 2.64 {\mu}m saturated absorption band of the surface CO2 ice is mainly due to the light scattered by aerosols above most places of the seasonal cap. We have mapped the total optical depth of dust aerosols in the near-IR above the south seasonal cap of Mars from mid-spring to early summer with a time resolution ranging from one day to one week and a spatial resolution of a few kilometers. The optical depth above the south perennial cap is determined on a longer time range covering southern spring and summer. A constant set of optical properties of dust aerosols is consistent with OMEGA observations during the analyzed period. Strong variations of the optical depth are observed over small horizontal and temporal scales, corresponding in part to moving dust clouds. The late summer peak in dust opacity observed by Opportunity in 2005 propagated to the south pole contrarily to that observed in mid spring. This may be linked to evidence for dust scavenging by water ice-rich clouds circulating at high southern latitudes at this season.

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          Most cited references14

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          An intercomparison of ground-based millimeter, MGS TES, and Viking atmospheric temperature measurements: Seasonal and interannual variability of temperatures and dust loading in the global Mars atmosphere

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            Atmospheric Imaging Results from the Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity

            M T Lemmon (2004)
            A visible atmospheric optical depth of 0.9 was measured by the Spirit rover at Gusev crater and by the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum. Optical depth decreased by about 0.6 to 0.7% per sol through both 90-sol primary missions. The vertical distribution of atmospheric dust at Gusev crater was consistent with uniform mixing, with a measured scale height of 11.56 +/- 0.62 kilometers. The dust's cross section weighted mean radius was 1.47 +/- 0.21 micrometers (mm) at Gusev and 1.52 +/- 0.18 mm at Meridiani. Comparison of visible optical depths with 9-mm optical depths shows a visible-to-infrared optical depth ratio of 2.0 +/- 0.2 for comparison with previous monitoring of infrared optical depths.
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              Martian dust storms: 1999 Mars Orbiter Camera observations

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                04 March 2011
                Article
                10.1016/j.icarus.2007.11.034
                1103.0854
                c6b84b3b-c0ea-40d2-868d-df77c6275385

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                Vincendon, M., Langevin, Y., Poulet, F., Bibring, J.-P., Gondet, B., Jouglet, D., OMEGA Team (2008), Dust aerosols above the south polar cap of Mars as seen by OMEGA, Icarus, 196, 488-505
                astro-ph.EP

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