Retrieving cloud, dust and ozone abundances in the Martian atmosphere using SPICAM/UV nadir spectra

Y. Willame 1 A. C. Vandaele 1 C. Depiesse 1 Franck Lefèvre 2 V. Letocart 1 D. Gillotay 1 Franck Montmessin 2
1 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
2 IMPEC - LATMOS
LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
Abstract : We present the retrieval algorithm developed to analyse nadir spectra from SPICAM/UV aboard Mars-Express. The purpose is to retrieve simultaneously several parameters of the Martian atmosphere and surface: the dust optical depth, the ozone total column, the cloud opacity and the surface albedo. The retrieval code couples the use of an existing complete radiative transfer code, an inversion method and a cloud detection algorithm. We describe the working principle of our algorithm and the parametrisation used to model the required absorption, scattering and reflection processes of the solar UV radiation that occur in the Martian atmosphere and at its surface. The retrieval method has been applied on 4 Martian years of SPICAM/UV data to obtain climatologies of the different quantities under investigation. An overview of the climatology is given for each species showing their seasonal and spatial distributions. The results show a good qualitative agreement with previous observations. Quantitative comparisons of the retrieved dust optical depths indicate generally larger values than previous studies. Possible shortcomings in the dust modelling (altitude profile) have been identified and may be part of the reason for this difference. The ozone results are found to be influenced by the presence of clouds. Preliminary quantitative comparisons show that our retrieved ozone columns are consistent with other results when no ice clouds are present, and are larger for the cases with clouds at high latitude. Sensitivity tests have also been performed showing that the use of other a priori assumptions such as the altitude distribution or some scattering properties can have an important impact on the retrieval.
Keywords : Ozone Dust Cloud Nadir retrieval Mars atmosphere SPICAM/UV
Document type :
Journal articles
Complete list of metadatas

Cited literature [62 references]  Display  Hide  Download
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01512630
Contributor : Catherine Cardon <>
Submitted on : Monday, May 29, 2017 - 10:18:45 AM
Last modification on : Friday, January 10, 2020 - 3:42:30 PM
Long-term archiving on: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - 10:28:43 AM

File

PSS Lefevre.pdf
Publisher files allowed on an open archive

Identifiers

Collections

CNRS | LATMOS | UPMC | UVSQ | INSU | UNIV-PARIS-SACLAY | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | SU-SCIENCES

Citation

Y. Willame, A. C. Vandaele, C. Depiesse, Franck Lefèvre, V. Letocart, et al.. Retrieving cloud, dust and ozone abundances in the Martian atmosphere using SPICAM/UV nadir spectra. Planetary and Space Science, Elsevier, 2017, 142, pp.9-25. ⟨10.1016/j.pss.2017.04.011⟩. ⟨insu-01512630⟩

Export

BibTeX TEI DC DCterms EndNote

Share

Metrics

Record views

199

Files downloads

249

Contact

Informations

CCSD