Mapping and detection of the mesospheric CO2 clouds on Mars using MEx/OMEGA instrument

In 1997, the descent of the lander Pathfinder into the Martian atmosphere revealed temperatures in the meso- sphere below CO2 condensation point. As CO2 is the main constituent of the martian atmosphere, the pres- ence of mesospheric CO2 ice clouds has been suggested, and then confirmed by spectro-imaging observa- tions coming from satellite data. These clouds fascinate scientists because none of the current atmospheric models have been able to predict them. They also raise important questions about the martian mesosphere dynamics and properties. Since the early 2000s, a lot of instruments study these clouds in order to detect and map them. These observations are very important in order to be able to model better the atmospheric processes that take place on Mars as the CO2 cycle has a significant impact on its climate. Several studies already developed methods to detect them but now these have to be improved and analysed better to fully characterise the clouds. What I am going to do will be then to analyse the three last years of observation from the OMEGA instrument onboard Mars Express, map the CO2 clouds and study their distribution. The aim of this thesis will be to study the inter-annual variations and the properties of the clouds and try to corre- late them with atmospheric parameters (amount of dust in the atmosphere, temperature, altitude) coming from other observations. The main objective here is to determine how these clouds form and what the source of the condensation nuclei is. With the results of our analysis, the climatology of Mars and its atmosphere dynamics will be refined.

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2017-12-31

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master thesis

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