Martian surface-atmosphere properties obtained with the ExoMars infrared instrument TIRVIM and HP3 on InSight

Abstract

ESA's ExoMars program compris es two mis s ions including the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, and a rover and s urface platform, to be launched in 2022. The main s cientific objectives of the program are to investigate the Martian environment and climate and s earch for pas t or pres ent s igns of life. For this purpos e, a s uite of three infrared s pectrometers for remote s ensing (Atmospheric Ch emis try Suite, ACS) is in us e on TGO. One of thes e ins truments is a Fourier trans form s pectrometer, TIRVIM (Thermal IR V-s hape Interferometer Mounting in honor of Vas s ili Ivanovich Moroz), operating in nadir, limb or s olar occultation mode between 1.7 and 17 µm. On ExoMars 22's s urface platform the s pectrometer FAST (Fourier for Atmospheric Species and Temperature) will s tu dy the atmos phere and s urface at the landing s ite in the s ame wavelength range as TIRVIM on TGO. This paper pres ents the objectives of TIRVIM and FAST. It s ummarizes s elected res ults of the determination of temperature profiles and dus t content in the lowe r atmos phere of Mars based on radiative transfer modeling of TIRVIM data. Synergetic analys es of TIRVIM s pectra and InSight (NASA) in situ meas urements of temperature and pres s ure at InSight's landing s ite in Elys ium Planitia enable improvements of procedu res to retrieve parameters from TIRVIM obs ervations. Firs t res ults on s urface temperature obtained from thes e different data s ets together with the meas urements to be expected in the future from FAST offer a unique opportunity to compare in situ and IR remote s ens ing meas urements. Show more