Publication Date:
2011-08-16
Description:
In order to set a new upper limit on the amount of diatomic oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars, we have reduced a number of high-dispersion spectra of the 7620 A band of oxygen obtained during the 1969 apparition of Mars. Our new upper limit is 15 atm cm(stp) for the Martian abundance in a single vertical path. This result confirms and lowers the 1963 upper limit of 70 cm atm(stp) by Kaplan, Muench, and Spinrad (1964). The features reported by Hunten and Belton (1966) do not appear on our spectra. Further, we have measured the pressure shift of the A band in the laboratory, and found that the shift required by their tentative identification of diatomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere does not exist. We conclude that their tentative identification was spurious, and their upper limit dubious.
Keywords:
SPACE SCIENCES
Type:
Icarus; 15; Oct. 197
Format:
text
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