• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: First Atmospheric Science Results from the Mars Exploration Rovers Mini-TES
  • Contributor: Smith, Michael D.; Wolff, Michael J.; Lemmon, Mark T.; Spanovich, Nicole; Banfield, Don; Budney, Charles J.; Clancy, R. Todd; Ghosh, Amitabha; Landis, Geoffrey A.; Smith, Peter; Whitney, Barbara; Christensen, Philip R.; Squyres, Steven W.
  • imprint: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2004
  • Published in: Science
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1126/science.1104257
  • ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>Thermal infrared spectra of the martian atmosphere taken by the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) were used to determine the atmospheric temperatures in the planetary boundary layer and the column-integrated optical depth of aerosols. Mini-TES observations show the diurnal variation of the martian boundary layer thermal structure, including a near-surface superadiabatic layer during the afternoon and an inversion layer at night. Upward-looking Mini-TES observations show warm and cool parcels of air moving through the Mini-TES field of view on a time scale of 30 seconds. The retrieved dust optical depth shows a downward trend at both sites.</jats:p>