Martian surface-atmosphere properties obtained with ExoMars infrared instrument TIRVIM and HP3 on InSight

Abstract

ESA’s ExoMars program comprises two missions including the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, and a rover and surface platform, to be launched in 2022. The main scientific objectives of the program are to investigate the Martian environment and climate and search for past or present signs of life. For this purpose, a suite of three infrared spectrometers for remote sensing (Atmospheric Chemistry Suite, ACS) is in use on TGO. One of these instruments is a Fourier transform spectrometer, TIRVIM (Thermal IR V-shape Interferometer Mounting in honor of Vassili Ivanovich Moroz), operating in nadir, limb or solar occultation mode between 1.7 and 17 μm. On ExoMars22’s surface platform the spectrometer FAST (Fourier for Atmospheric Species and Temperature) will study the atmosphere and surface at the landing site in the same wavelength range as TIRVIM on TGO. This paper presents the objectives of TIRVIM and FAST. It summarizes selected results of the determination of temperature profiles and dust content in the lower atmosphere of Mars based on radiative transfer modeling of TIRVIM data. Synergetic analyses of TIRVIM spectra and InSight (NASA) in situ measurements of temperature and pressure at InSight’s landing site in Elysium Planitia enable improvements of procedures to retrieve parameters from TIRVIM observations. First results on surface temperature obtained from these different data sets together with the measurements to be expected in the future from FAST offer a unique opportunity to compare in situ and IR remote sensing measurements.