Goddard Space Flight Center
Planetary Systems Laboratory

Planetary Systems Laboratory

Two Columns

Mars

CRISM_Mars_watervapor

The Laboratory is involved in studying the atmosphere of Mars from a number of NASA missions and ground-based observatories. These include science participation in the Mars Global Surveyor (operated 1997-2006), Mars Odyssey (2001-present), Mars Exploration Rovers (2004-present), and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006-present) missions. In particular, the temperatures, composition and aerosol opacity are main areas of study, mainly using infrared data from those mission and from Laboratory-built instruments, such as HIPWAC. Personnel are also involved in future mission concept studies and proposals.



MarsHIPWAC

Spectrum of the atmosphere of Mars taken by the HIPWAC spectrometer at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i. Ozone is a tracer of atmospheric chemistry on Mars and an important input for photochemical models. Here, an ozone absorption feature at 9.5 μm measures ozone abundance and distribution while the wing of a CO2 absorption line gives simultaneous temperature information. The CO2 non-LTE emission core probes high-altitude temperature and atmospheric dynamics. The infrared heterodyne technique that HIPWAC is based on offers spectral resolving power (λ/Δλ) of greater than one million, making it's the only technique that can peer through the "picket fence" of Earth's ozone features and measure fully-resolved absorption line shapes of ozone on Mars from Earth's surface. HIPWAC is the Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary Wind and Composition, built and operated by the Planetary Systems Laboratory.

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