Terry Z. Martin

Martian North Pole Summer Temperatures: Dirty Water Ice

Broadband thermal and reflectance observations of the martian north polar region in late summer yield temperatures for the residual polar cap near 205 K with albedos near 43 percent. The residual cap and several outlying smaller deposits are water ice with included dirt; there is no evidence for any permanent carbon dioxide polar cap.

Thermal infrared opacity of the Mars atmosphere

An analytical technique is presented for the deriving Mars atmosphere opacity from data furnished by the IR Thermal Mapper (IRTM) instruments on the Viking landers. Each IRTM features four telescopes for viewing Mars in six spectral bands and seven spatial fields of view. The present study focuses on 20 microns measurements of the thermal inertia, 0.3-3.0 microns data for the surface albedo, and, finally, the 7, 9, and 15 microns data for the actual opacity derivations. The model takes into account the atmospheric temperature profile, scattering by dust, the surface emissivity and the variation of the surface/atmosphere temperature discontinuity. Analyses are carried out of the possible error factors and the model is used to generate opacity histories for the two Viking Lander sites. The results, when compared with other astronomical data, indicate that the method is sufficiently accurate to use opacity data to analyze the processes of storm genesis and to study local storms. 26 references.

Infrared Thermal Mapping of the Martian Surface and Atmosphere: First Results

The Viking infrared thermal mapper measures the thermal emission of the martian surface and atmosphere and the total reflected sunlight. With the high resolution and dense coverage being achieved, planetwide thermal structure is apparent at large and small scales. The thermal behavior of the best-observed areas, the landing sites, cannot be explained by simple homogeneous models. The data contain clear indications for the relevance of additional factors such as detailed surface texture and the occurrence of clouds. Areas in the polar night have temperatures distinctly lower than the CO2 condensation point at the surface pressure. This observation implies that the annual atmospheric condensation is less than previously assumed and that either thick CO2 clouds exist at the 20-kilometer level or that the polar atmosphere is locally enriched by noncondensable gases.

New dust opacity mapping from Viking infrared thermal mapper data

Global dust opacity mapping for Mars has been carried forward using the approach described by Martin (1986) for Viking IR Thermal Mapper data. New maps are presented for the period from the beginning of Viking observations, until Ls 210° in 1979 (1.36 Mars years). This range includes the second and more extensive planet-encircling dust storm observed by Viking, known as storm 1977b. Improvements in approach result in greater time resolution and smaller noise than the earlier work. A strong local storm event filled the Hellas basin at Ls 170°, prior to the 1977a storm. Dust is retained in equatorial regions following the 1977b storm far longer than in mid-latitudes. Minor dust events appear to raise the opacity in northern high latitudes during northern spring. Additional mapping with high time resolution has been done for the periods of time near the major storm origins in order to search for clues to the mechanism of storm initiation. The first evidence of the start of the 1977b storm is pushed back to Ls 274.2°, preceding signs of the storm in images by about 15 hours.

Thermal maps of jupiter: spatial organization and time dependence of stratospheric temperatures, 1980 to 1990.

The spatial organization and time dependence of Jupiters stratospheric temperatures have been measured by observing thermal emission from the 7.8-micrometer CH4 band. These temperatures, observed through the greater part of a Jovian year, exhibit the influence of seasonal radiative forcing. Distinct bands of high temperature are located at the poles and mid-latitudes, while the equator alternates between warm and cold with a period of approximately 4 years. Substantial longitudinal variability is often observed within the warm mid-latitude bands, and occasionally elsewhere on the planet. This variability includes small, localized structures, as well as large-scale waves with wavelengths longer than ∼30,000 kilometers. The amplitudes of the waves vary on a time scale of ∼1 month; structures on a smaller scale may have lifetimes of only days. Waves observed in 1985, 1987, and 1988 propagated with group velocities less than �30 meters per second.

Mars: North-polar atmospheric warming during dust storms

Abstract Measurements of winter polar atmospheric temperatures on Mars are presented for the two 1977 dust storms observed by Viking. These data show a strong time and spatial dependence of the polar warming and provide important boundary conditions for dynamical models of the phenomenon.

Earth-Based Observations of the Galileo Probe Entry Site

Earth-based observations of Jupiter indicate that the Galileo probe probably entered Jupiters atmosphere just inside a region that has less cloud cover and drier conditions than more than 99 percent of the rest of the planet. The visual appearance of the clouds at the site was generally dark at longer wavelengths. The tropospheric and stratospheric temperature fields have a strong longitudinal wave structure that is expected to manifest itself in the vertical temperature profile.

Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer Observations of Jupiter and the Galilean Satellites

Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) maps of daytime temperatures on Ganymede at a resolution of 220 kilometers show the expected anticorrelation with albedo, but morning temperatures were about 10 kelvin warmer than expected. Europa had a subsolar temperature of 128 kelvin and a lower effective thermal inertia than either Ganymede or Callisto, and Ios night side was cooler than predicted by recent models, perhaps requiring revision of heat-flow estimates. The lowest 250-millibar temperatures in the Great Red Spot (GRS) generally corresponded to the visually darkest regions. Temperatures remained cold north of the GRS, but they rose by as much as 6 kelvin to the south over the 2800-kilometer PPR resolution. A visually bright region northwest of the GRS was also relatively cold. It is likely that NH3 clouds affected the determination of the 500-millibar temperature field, which appears qualitatively different.

Temperatures of the Martian Surface and Atmosphere: Viking Observation of Diurnal and Geometric Variations

Selected observations made with the Viking infrared thermal mapper after the first landing are reported. Atmospheric temperatures measured at the latitude of the Viking 2 landing site (48 � N) over most of a martian day reveal a diurnal variation of at least 15 K, with peak temperatures occurring near 2.2 hours after noon, implying significant absorption of sunlight in the lower 30 km of the atmosphere by entrained dust. The summit temperature of Arsia Mons varies by a factor of nearly two each day; large diurnal temperature variation is characteristic of the south Tharsis upland and implies the presence of low thermal inertia material. The thermal inertia of material on the floors of several typical large craters is found to be higher than for the surrounding terrain; this suggests that craters are somehow effective in sorting aeolian material. Brightness temperatures of the Viking 1 landing area decrease at large emission angles; the intensity of reflected sunlight shows a more complex dependence on geometry than expected, implying atmospheric as well as surface scattering.

Spatial organization and time dependence of Jupiter's tropospheric temperatures, 1980-1993

The spatial organization and time dependence of Jupiters temperatures near 250-millibar pressure were measured through a jovian year by imaging thermal emission at 18 micrometers. The temperature field is influenced by seasonal radiative forcing, and its banded organization is closely correlated with the visible cloud field. Evidence was found for a quasi-periodic oscillation of temperatures in the Equatorial Zone, a correlation between tropospheric and stratospheric waves in the North Equatorial Belt, and slowly moving thermal features in the North and South Equatorial Belts. There appears to be no common relation between temporal changes of temperature and changes in the visual albedo of the various axisymmetric bands.