Mapping methane in Martian atmosphere with PFS-MEX data |
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| Authors: | A Geminale V Formisano G Sindoni |
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| Institution: | 1. Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301, USA;2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA;3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, USA;4. Malin Space Science Systems, 5880 Pacific Center Blvd., San Diego, CA 92121, USA;5. John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Columbia, MD 20723, USA;6. Laboratoire Atmosphères Milieux Observations Spatiales, Paris, France;7. Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy BIRA-IASB, Brussels, Belgium;1. Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research/Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland;2. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland;3. Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA;5. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA;6. Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX, USA;1. Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (CNRS/UPMC/IPSL), Paris, France;2. Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (CNRS/IPSL), Guyancourt, France;3. Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (IAPS/INAF), Rome, Italy;4. Space Science Institute, Boulder, USA |
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| Abstract: | In this study we map the methane gas in the Martian atmosphere. The main goal of this work is to show the methane behaviour across the planet seasonally. To this aim, we analyze the strongest methane band in the short wavelength channel of the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on board ESA Mars Express (MeX) spacecraft. The optical line depth is used to derive the column density of methane. The maps thus obtained show the spatial variability of this non-condensable gas and how the gas is transported in the atmosphere due to the cycle of carbon dioxide. Moreover, the increase of methane over the north polar cap during local summer, which cannot be explained by global circulation, strongly suggests that there could be methane reservoir associated with the polar cap. |
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