Observations and Measurements of the Martian Atmosphere
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Planetary Atmospheres".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (24 April 2020) | Viewed by 6775
Special Issue Editors
Interests: planetary science; planetary aeronomy; space physics; ultraviolet dayglow
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
For over 200 years, humanity has known that Mars has an atmosphere, but it was not until the advent of space-based observations beginning with the Mariner spacecraft that a clear understanding of the composition, temperature, and dynamics of the Martian atmosphere began to form. In 1976, Viking landers travelled from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the surface, providing the first in situ measurements of the planet’s atmospheric column. During their time on the surface, the Viking landers provided the first direct measurements of climatology and weather on the planet’s surface. Since the Viking missions, over ten missions have visited Mars and made measurements of its atmosphere from the surface to the exosphere. These observations have provided new insight into the major processes active in the Mars atmosphere, including the importance of the CO2, water, and dust cycles for driving the current climate, and the role of processes in the upper atmosphere for driving long-term atmospheric evolution. It has also become evident that coupling between the lower and upper atmosphere is a major source of day-to-day upper atmospheric variability, as well as the variability of water loss to space over seasonal time scales.
Given the wealth of data collected by past missions to the red planet and the numerous missions presently at Mars that, when considered in aggregate, are characterizing the entire atmosphere, it is timely to bring together a collection of papers on the latest analyses of Mars atmospheric observations and measurements. We encourage submissions of research that analyze data from any region of the Mars atmosphere, including the ionosphere. Further, although space-based observations are emphasized, ground-based measurements are also welcome.
Dr. Sonal Kumar Jain
Dr. Edward Thiemann
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Mars atmosphere
- Mars ionosphere
- Mars climatology
- atmospheric science
- atmospheric coupling
- atmospheric dynamics
- Mars water and dust cycle
- lower atmosphere
- upper atmosphere
- middle atmosphere
- escape
