Carbon Dioxide Retrievals From NOMAD-SO on ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Temperature Profile Retrievals With the Hydrostatic Equilibrium Equation: 2. Temperature Variabilities in the Mesosphere at Mars Terminator

Journal
Date Issued
2023
Author(s)
Trompet, L.
•
Vandaele, A. C.
•
Thomas, I.
•
Aoki, S.
•
Daerden, F.
•
Erwin, J.
•
Flimon, Z.
•
Mahieux, A.
•
Neary, L.
•
Robert, S.
•
Villanueva, G.
•
Liuzzi, G.
•
López-Valverde, M. A.
•
Brines, A.
•
•
Lopez-Moreno, J. J.
•
Patel, M. R.
DOI
Abstract
The Solar Occultation (SO) channel of the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument scans the Martian atmosphere since 21 April 2018. In this work, we present a subset of the NOMAD SO data measured at the mesosphere. We focused on a spectral range that started to be recorded in Martian year (MY) 35. A total of 968 vertical profiles of carbon dioxide density and temperature covering MY 35 and the beginning of MY 36 were investigated until 135° of solar longitude. We compared 47 profiles with co-located profiles of the Mars Climate Sounder onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Most profiles show a good agreement as SO temperatures are only 1.8 K higher, but some biases lead to an average absolute difference of 7.4°K. The SO data set is also compared with simulations from the Global Environmental Multiscale-Mars general circulation model. Both data sets are in good agreement except for the presence of a cold layer in the winter hemisphere and a warm layer at dawn in the Northern hemisphere for solar longitudes between 240° and 360°. Five profiles contain temperatures lower than the limit for CO2 condensation. Strong warm layers were found in 13.5% of the profiles. They are present mainly at dawn and in the winter hemisphere, while the Northern dusks appear featureless. The data set mainly covers high latitudes around 60° and we derived some non-migrating tides. In the Southern winter hemisphere, we derived apparent zonal wavenumber-1 (WN-1) and WN-3 tidal components with a maximum amplitude of 10% and 5% at 63 km, respectively.
Volume
128
Issue
3
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
2169-9097
Rights
open.access
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