Phoenix LIDAR measurements of Mars atmospheric dust

Abstract The LIDAR instrument on the Phoenix mission obtained measurements of atmospheric dust and clouds from the surface in the Arctic region of Mars (68.22°N, 234.25°E) during late spring through the middle of summer. The observed vertical distribution of dust indicated that the planetary boundary layer (PBL) was evenly mixed up to heights of 4 km by daytime convection and turbulence. The values of the dust optical extinction coefficient derived from the LIDAR measurements within the PBL reached a maximum of 0.15 km −1 during the period around summer solstice and then decreased to values approaching 0.03 km −1 over the next 60 martian days (sols). The ratio of the LIDAR backscatter coefficient at wavelength 1064 nm to that at 532 nm for dust was obtained in three cases and found to have values in the range 1.18–1.35, relative to an assumed value of unity for the near surface water ice clouds. Mie scattering calculations were performed to determine that the measured dust 1064/532 backscatter color ratios were consistent with particle size distributions having effective radii in the range of 1.2–1.4 μm.

[1]  Bruce A. Cantor,et al.  Martian dust storms: 1999 Mars Orbiter Camera observations , 2001 .

[2]  R. Grainger,et al.  Calculation of Mie derivatives. , 2004, Applied optics.

[3]  D. Ming,et al.  H2O at the Phoenix Landing Site , 2009, Science.

[4]  M. D. Ellehoj,et al.  Convective vortices and dust devils at the Phoenix Mars mission landing site , 2010 .

[5]  Jimmy D Bell,et al.  Atmospheric Imaging Results from the Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity , 2004, Science.

[6]  A. Ansmann,et al.  Aerosol lidar intercomparison in the framework of the EARLINET project. 3. Raman lidar algorithm for aerosol extinction, backscatter, and lidar ratio. , 2004, Applied optics.

[7]  Allan I. Carswell,et al.  Lidar on the Phoenix mission to Mars , 2008 .

[8]  Carol R. Stoker,et al.  Introduction to special section on the Phoenix Mission: Landing Site Characterization Experiments, Mission Overviews, and Expected Science , 2008 .

[9]  Michael D. Smith.  THEMIS Observations of Mars Aerosol Optical Depth from 2002-2008 , 2009 .

[10]  Stephen D. Fuerstenau,et al.  Solar heating of suspended particles and the dynamics of Martian dust devils , 2006 .

[11]  Peter H. Smith.  Water at the Phoenix landing site , 2009 .

[12]  A model of dust in the Martian lower atmosphere , 2009 .

[13]  Zhaoyan Liu,et al.  On the spectral dependence of backscatter from cirrus clouds: Assessing CALIOP's 1064 nm calibration assumptions using cloud physics lidar measurements , 2010 .

[14]  Raymond E. Arvidson,et al.  Wavelength dependence of dust aerosol single scattering albedo as observed by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer , 2009 .

[15]  Mark I. Richardson,et al.  Observations of the initiation and evolution of the 2001 Mars global dust storm , 2005 .

[16]  F. G. Fernald.  Analysis of atmospheric lidar observations: some comments. , 1984, Applied optics.

[17]  K. Edgett,et al.  Mars Orbiter Camera observations of Martian dust devils and their tracks (September 1997 to January 2006) and evaluation of theoretical vortex models , 2006 .

[18]  P. James,et al.  North Polar Dust Storms in Early Spring on Mars , 1999 .

[19]  C. Dickinson,et al.  Lidar atmospheric measurements on Mars and Earth , 2011 .

[20]  David P. Hinson,et al.  The depth of the convective boundary layer on Mars , 2008 .

[21]  F. Daerden,et al.  Mars Water-Ice Clouds and Precipitation , 2009, Science.

[22]  Mark I. Richardson,et al.  A first look at dust lifting and dust storms near the south pole of Mars with a mesoscale model , 2002 .

[23]  Lidar measurements of clouds in the planetary boundary layer on Mars , 2010 .

[24]  D. Donovan,et al.  Correction for nonlinear photon-counting effects in lidar systems. , 1993, Applied optics.

[25]  F. Daerden,et al.  Simulating observed boundary layer clouds on Mars , 2010 .

[26]  Jun Q. Lu,et al.  Simulation of the color ratio associated with the backscattering of radiation by ice particles at the wavelengths of 0.532 and 1.064 μm , 2009 .

[27]  V. Freudenthaler,et al.  Long-range transport of Saharan dust to northern Europe : The 11-16 October 2001 outbreak observed with EARLINET , 2003 .

[28]  J. Schofield,et al.  Vertical distribution of dust in the Martian atmosphere during northern spring and summer: High-altitude tropical dust maximum at northern summer solstice , 2011 .

[29]  Paul S. Smith,et al.  The Phoenix Surface Stereo Imager SSI investigation , 2008 .

[30]  R. Todd Clancy,et al.  Mars aerosol studies with the MGS TES emission phase function observations: Optical depths, particle sizes, and ice cloud types versus latitude and solar longitude , 2003 .