Open AccessMars Climate Sounder limb profile retrieval of atmospheric temperature, pressure, and dust and water ice opacity
Author(s) -
Kleinböhl Armin,
Schofield John T.,
Kass David M.,
Abdou Wedad A.,
Backus Charles R.,
Sen Bhaswar,
Shirley James H.,
Lawson W. Gregory,
Richardson Mark I.,
Taylor Fredric W.,
Teanby Nicholas A.,
McCleese Daniel J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: planets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2009je003358
Subject(s) - opacity , mars exploration program , water vapor , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , martian , remote sensing , radiative transfer , radiometer , atmospheric temperature , altitude (triangle) , atmosphere of mars , geology , meteorology , astrobiology , physics , optics , geometry , mathematics
The Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the latest of a series of investigations devoted to improving the understanding of current Martian climate. MCS is a nine‐channel passive midinfrared and far‐infrared filter radiometer designed to measure thermal emission in limb and on‐planet geometries from which vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, water vapor, dust, and condensates can be retrieved. Here we describe the algorithm that is used to retrieve atmospheric profiles from MCS limb measurements for delivery to the Planetary Data System. The algorithm is based on a modified Chahine method and uses a fast radiative transfer scheme based on the Curtis‐Godson approximation. It retrieves pressure and vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, dust opacity, and water ice opacity. Water vapor retrievals involve a different approach and will be reported separately. Pressure can be retrieved to a precision of 1–2% and is used to establish the vertical coordinate. Temperature profiles are retrieved over a range from 5–10 to 80–90 km altitude with a typical altitude resolution of 4–6 km and a precision between 0.5 and 2 K over most of this altitude range. Dust and water ice opacity profiles also achieve vertical resolutions of about 5 km and typically have precisions of 10 −4 –10 −5 km −1 at 463 cm −1 and 843 cm −1 , respectively. Examples of temperature profiles as well as dust and water ice opacity profiles from the first year of the MCS mission are presented, and atmospheric features observed during periods employing different MCS operational modes are described. An intercomparison with historical temperature measurements from the Mars Global Surveyor mission shows good agreement.