Optimal orbits for Mars atmosphere remote sensing |
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Authors: | Michel Capderou François Forget |
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Institution: | Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (IPSL), Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau France |
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Abstract: | Most of the spacecrafts currently around Mars (or planned to reach Mars in the near future) use Sun-synchronous or near-polar orbits. Such orbits offer a very poor sampling of the diurnal cycle. Yet, sampling the diurnal cycle is of key importance to study Mars meteorology and climate. A comprehensive remote sensing data set should have been obtained by the end of the MRO mission, launched in 2005. For later windows, time-varying phenomena should be given the highest priority for remote sensing investigations. We present possible orbits for such missions which provide a rich spatial and temporal sampling with a relatively short repeat cycle (50 sols). After computation and determination of these orbits, said “optimal orbits”, we illustrate our results by tables of sampling and comparison with other orbits. |
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Keywords: | Satellite around Mars Mars atmosphere Orbitography Remote sensing |
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