Leonce Komguem

Mars Water-Ice Clouds and Precipitation

Phoenix Ascending The Phoenix mission landed on Mars in March 2008 with the goal of studying the ice-rich soil of the planets northern arctic region. Phoenix included a robotic arm, with a camera attached to it, with the capacity to excavate through the soil to the ice layer beneath it, scoop up soil and water ice samples, and deliver them to a combination of other instruments—including a wet chemistry lab and a high-temperature oven combined with a mass spectrometer—for chemical and geological analysis. Using this setup, Smith et al. (p. 58) found a layer of ice at depths of 5 to 15 centimeters, Boynton et al. (p. 61) found evidence for the presence of calcium carbonate in the soil, and Hecht et al. (p. 64) found that most of the soluble chlorine at the surface is in the form of perchlorate. Together these results suggest that the soil at the Phoenix landing site must have suffered alteration through the action of liquid water in geologically the recent past. The analysis revealed an alkaline environment, in contrast to that found by the Mars Exploration Rovers, indicating that many different environments have existed on Mars. Phoenix also carried a lidar, an instrument that sends laser light upward into the atmosphere and detects the light scattered back by clouds and dust. An analysis of the data by Whiteway et al. (p. 68) showed that clouds of ice crystals that precipitated back to the surface formed on a daily basis, providing a mechanism to place ice at the surface. Laser remote sensing from Mars’ surface revealed water-ice clouds that formed during the day and precipitated at night. The light detection and ranging instrument on the Phoenix mission observed water-ice clouds in the atmosphere of Mars that were similar to cirrus clouds on Earth. Fall streaks in the cloud structure traced the precipitation of ice crystals toward the ground. Measurements of atmospheric dust indicated that the planetary boundary layer (PBL) on Mars was well mixed, up to heights of around 4 kilometers, by the summer daytime turbulence and convection. The water-ice clouds were detected at the top of the PBL and near the ground each night in late summer after the air temperature started decreasing. The interpretation is that water vapor mixed upward by daytime turbulence and convection forms ice crystal clouds at night that precipitate back toward the surface.

A solar escalator on Mars: Self‐lifting of dust layers by radiative heating

Dust layers detected in the atmosphere of Mars by the light detection and ranging (LIDAR) instrument on the Phoenix Mars mission are explained using an atmospheric general circulation model. The layers were traced back to observed dust storm activity near the edge of the north polar ice cap where simulated surface winds exceeded the threshold for dust lifting by saltation. Heating of the atmospheric dust by solar radiation caused buoyant instability and mixing across the top of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Differential advection by wind shear created detached dust layers above the PBL that ascended due to radiative heating and arrived at the Phoenix site at heights corresponding to the LIDAR observations. The self-lifting of the dust layers is similar to the “solar escalator” mechanism for aerosol layers in the Earths stratosphere.

Observations of near-surface fog at the Phoenix Mars landing site

The Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) on the Phoenix Mars Lander was able to complement the operations of the LIDAR on four occasions during the mission by observing the laser beam while the LIDAR laser was transmitting. These SSI observations permitted measurement of the scatter from atmospheric aerosols below 200 m where the LIDAR emitter and receiver do not overlap fully. The observed laser scattering was used to estimate the ice-water content (IWC) of near surface fog. Values of IWC up to 1.7 ± 1.0 mg m−3 were observed. Compared to air aloft, fog formation was inhibited near the surface which had accumulated at least 30 ± 24 mg m−2 (0.030 pr-μm) on sol 113. Microphysical modeling shows that when precipitation is included, up to 0.48 pr-μm of water may be present on the surface at the time of measurement. Integrated over the entire night, this represents up to 2.5 pr-μm of water taken up diurnally by the surface, or 6% of the total water column.