SSC Seminar Series: Two years of water ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere

Wednesday, October 12, 2022 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Morse Hall rm 301 OR Zoom


Speaker: Aurélien Stcherbinine
Northern Arizona University - Dept. of Astronomy and Planetary Science - PIXEL

Abstract: Even though the role of water ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere was not well understood until the 2000s, they are now considered to play an important role in the Martian climate and weather. Not only their presence impacts the atmospheric structure and temperature by their interaction with the incoming Solar radiation, but they are also a major actor in the inter-hemispheric exchange of water across the planet, and their formation affects the ability of water (or hydrogen) to be further mobilized and to escape the planet. However, more observational data are currently needed to better characterize the properties of water ice clouds in order to better understand and model the evolution of the Martian atmosphere. Thus, we present here the result of a two Martian years monitoring of the properties of the Martian water ice clouds using the data from the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) instrument onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft, and comparisons with predictions from the Mars Planetary Climate Model (PCM).

Schedule: Check out the schedule for this season's Space Science Seminar Series