Orbital monitoring of martian surface changes

Orbital monitoring of martian surface changes

Authors:

Geissler et al

Abstract:

A history of martian surface changes is documented by a sequence of global mosaics made up of Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera daily color images from 1999 to 2006, together with a single mosaic from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Color Imager in 2009. These observations show that changes in the global albedo patterns of Mars take place by a combination of dust storms and strong winds. Many of the observed surface changes took place along the tracks of seasonally repeating winter dust storms cataloged by Wang and Richardson (2015). These storms tend to sweep dust towards the equator, progressively shifting albedo boundaries and continuing surface changes that began before the arrival of MGS. The largest and most conspicuous changes took place during the global dust storm of 2001 (MY 25), which blanketed Syrtis Major, stripped dust from the Tharsis region, and injected dust into Solis Planum. High wind speeds but low wind stresses are predicted in Syrtis, Tharsis and Solis by the NASA Ames GCM. Frequent changes in these regions show that dust accumulations are quickly removed by stronger winds that are not predicted by the GCM, but may result from smaller-scale influences such as unresolved topography.

NASA Looking for Ideas for Advanced Mars Orbiter

NASA is soliciting ideas from U.S. industry for designs of a Mars orbiter for potential launch in the 2020s. The satellite would provide advanced communications and imaging, as well as robotic science exploration, in support of NASA’s Journey to Mars.

The orbiter would substantially increase bandwidth communications and maintain high-resolution imaging capability. It also may use experimental cutting-edge technologies, such as high-power solar electric propulsion or an optical communications package, which could greatly improve transmission speed and capacity over radio frequency systems.

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ExoMars Successfully Shipped to Baikonur

Europe's second mission to Mars has begun its journey from its birthplace in Cannes to its planned arrival at Mars on October 19. Since December 17 we've been able to watch every step of its journey, thanks to a stream of tweets from Albert Haldemann. He is overseeing the spacecraft's assembly, integration, and verification, and flew back and forth from Baikonur for the three trips required to transport ExoMars and all its equipment. Tweeting from Baikonur was technical operations officer Remy van Haarlem. I've Storified their tweets here, but include a few highlights below.

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1/3 Model of China's 2020 Mars Mission

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Okay, India.  You beat the Chinese to Mars (and the Russians going back for that matter...and the Japanese), time to get there again before the Chinese.

United Arab Emirates Unveil 2020 Mars Orbiter 'Hope' (Tannama?) Plans

The blueprints and science goals for the first Arab mission to Mars have been revealed for the first time. The Emirates Mars Mission probe, named “Hope”, will create mankind’s first integrated model of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

The unmanned probe will leave Earth in 2020 on a mission designed to complement the science work of other missions and fill important gaps in human knowledge. Its unique orbits and instruments produce entirely new types of data on Martian climate dynamics to be shared with the global science community.

“The Emirates Mars Mission will be a great contribution to human knowledge, a milestone for Arab civilisation, and a real investment for future generations. This probe represents hope for millions of young Arabs looking for a better future,” said His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

This data will enable scientists to build the first truly holistic models of the Martian atmosphere. Such models may help the global Mars science community to unlock more mysteries of the Red Planet, such as why its atmosphere has been decaying into space to the point that it is now too thin for liquid water to exist on the surface.

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How to Detect Earthquakes (Venusquakes?) on Venus From Orbit

Detecting an "earthquake" on Venus would seem to be an impossible task. The planet's surface is a hostile zone of crushing pressure and scorching temperatures--about 874 degrees F, hot enough to melt lead--that would destroy any of the normal instruments used to gauge seismic activity. But conditions in Venus' atmosphere are much more hospitable, and it is here that researchers hope to deploy an array of balloons or satellites that could detect Venusian seismic activity--using sound.

These kinds of low frequency or infrasonic sound waves, much lower than an audible voice, are already measured on Earth. The rumbling or "hum" can be generated by sources as diverse as volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean storms and meteor air blasts. In recent years, says Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher Stephen Arrowsmith, infrasonic observations have undergone a renaissance of sorts, especially as a relatively inexpensive way to monitor atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. But last year, a team of experts convened by the Keck Institute for Space Studies began thinking of ways to use infrasonic observations to get a better look at the geological dynamics of Venus.

At about 50-60 kilometers above Venus' surface, the temperature and pressure conditions are much more like those on Earth, albeit with a denser atmosphere. This dense atmosphere helps translate any seismic waves into infrasonic waves that can be detected with instruments floating above the planet's surface, says Jim Cutts, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher who participated in the Keck conference. Infrasonic waves can be "felt" as either fluctuations in pressure, or as light emissions called airglow, or electron disruptions in Venus' upper atmosphere.

Arrowsmith and colleagues say that barometric pressure changes might be detected with a series of balloons in the Venus cloud layer at 55 kilometers above the surface, such as those launched by the Soviet Union in Venus' atmosphere in the 1980s. In a second talk, Philippe Lognonné and colleagues discuss a complementary way to analyze the planet's infrasonic waves, using orbiting satellites to detect airglow. In both cases, the first goal will be determine what the noise-to-signal ratio might be for these two techniques. The researchers want to know if the instruments onboard a balloon or satellite will be sensitive enough to detect and identify a seismic signal in the midst of other infrasonic waves, and how large of a seismic event might be detected by these observations.

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Mars Recon Orbiter Spots Curiosity Rover on Mount Sharp

Planetary Society's "Family Portrait" of Mars Probes

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They should not be calling it MOM.  oy.