Publication Date:
2004-12-04
Description:
A visible atmospheric optical depth of 0.9 was measured by the Spirit rover at Gusev crater and by the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum. Optical depth decreased by about 0.6 to 0.7% per sol through both 90-sol primary missions. The vertical distribution of atmospheric dust at Gusev crater was consistent with uniform mixing, with a measured scale height of 11.56 +/- 0.62 kilometers. The dust's cross section weighted mean radius was 1.47 +/- 0.21 micrometers (mm) at Gusev and 1.52 +/- 0.18 mm at Meridiani. Comparison of visible optical depths with 9-mm optical depths shows a visible-to-infrared optical depth ratio of 2.0 +/- 0.2 for comparison with previous monitoring of infrared optical depths.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lemmon, M T -- Wolff, M J -- Smith, M D -- Clancy, R T -- Banfield, D -- Landis, G A -- Ghosh, A -- Smith, P H -- Spanovich, N -- Whitney, B -- Whelley, P -- Greeley, R -- Thompson, S -- Bell, J F 3rd -- Squyres, S W -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Dec 3;306(5702):1753-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. lemmon@tamu.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15576613" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Algorithms
;
Atmosphere
;
Carbon Dioxide
;
Extraterrestrial Environment
;
*Mars
;
Solar System
;
Spacecraft
;
Temperature
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
