HR: 1340h
AN: P13D-1551    [Abstracts]
TI: The Martian lithosphere in the Tharsis region: A comparison between MEX gravity data and the MOLA topography model
AU: Fels, M
EM: felsm@uni-koeln.de
AF: Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Aachenerstr. 209, 50931, Cologne, Germany
AU: * Pätzold, M
EM: paetzold@geo.uni-koeln.de
AF: Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Aachenerstr. 209, 50931, Cologne, Germany
AU: Häusler, B
EM: bernd.haeusler@unibw-muenchen.de
AF: Universität der Bundeswehr München, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, Neubiberg, 85579, Germany
AB: The first European Mars Mission, Mars Express (MEX), is operating in orbit around Mars since Januar 2004. The Mars Express Radio-Science Experiment (MaRS) is performing gravity measurements above selected target areas during the pericenter passes at an altitude from 250 km to 350 km. MEX has a much higher sensitivity to gravity attractions at small scales than the NASA mission Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) due to this low pericenter altitude. A total of 70 Doppler observations above selected target areas could be recorded at the ESA ground station in New Norcia and at the antennas of the Deep Space Network (DSN). Profiles of the gravitational acceleration could be computed after low-pass filtering. These residual accelerations will be compared with the MOLA topography model from MGS by computing the cross-correlations between these both datasets for all gravity operations belonging to the same target area to make a statement about the compensation status of the particular local and regional Martian lithosphere respectively.
DE: 5410 Composition (1060, 3672)
DE: 5417 Gravitational fields (1221)
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting