HR: 16:00h
AN: P24A-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Spacecraft Observations of Atmospheric Temperature and Aerosol Optical Depth Near the Time of the MER Landings
AU: * Smith, M D
EM: Michael.D.Smith@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Continued atmospheric monitoring by the Mars Global Surveyor TES and Mars Odyssey THEMIS instruments provided daily maps of the regional to global scale variation of atmospheric temperature and aerosol optical depth before, during, and after the time of the two Mars Exploration Rover (MER) landings in January 2005. After landing, the MER Mini-TES instrument provided additional complementary information about the late-summer atmospheric state at the Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum landing sites. Orbital observations taken before the MER landings documented the initiation, growth, and decay of a large regional dust storm in mid-December 2004, just weeks before the MER Spirit landing. This dust storm caused an increase in atmospheric temperature above nominal seasonal values, and left relatively dusty conditions for the rovers after landing. Atmospheric entry parameters such as the height at which to open the parachute were adjusted considering the daily TES updates in the days before both MER landings. Here we present observations of atmospheric temperatures and aerosol optical depth by TES and THEMIS in the time period near the MER landings. We compare the TES and THEMIS observations against the values predicted from climatology and the observations taken after landing by the MER Mini-TES.
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707)
DE: 5409 Atmospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 6225 Mars
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly