Seasonal and interannual variations of H₂O₂ on Mars

Thérèse Encrenaz (1, 2) , Thomas K. Greathouse (3) , Franck Lefèvre (4) , Franck Montmessin (4) , Thierry Fouchet (1, 2) , Bruno Bézard (1, 2) , Sushil K. Atreya (5) , Brigitte Gondet (6) , Anna Fedorova (7) , Paul Hartogh (8)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 Pôle Planétologie du LESIA
3 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
4 PLANETO - LATMOS
5 AOSS - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences [Ann Arbor]
6 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
7 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
8 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung

Following a long-term monitoring campaign on the abundance and distribution of hydrogen peroxide on Mars, we present a new observation near summer solstice which corresponds to a maximum of the seasonal abundance of H₂O₂. Our result is in full agreement with GCM predictions (Lefèvre et al. 2008; [1]). We also analyse previous measurements of H₂O₂ in the vicinity of aphelion which seem to indicate the existence of interannual variations, and we discuss their possible origin.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Thérèse Encrenaz, Thomas K. Greathouse, Franck Lefèvre, Franck Montmessin, Thierry Fouchet, et al.. Seasonal and interannual variations of H₂O₂ on Mars. European Planetary Science Congress 2017, Sep 2017, Riga, Latvia. pp.EPSC2017-175. ⟨insu-01669346⟩