Publications Details

Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer’s (EMUS) Observation of Argon in the Martian Thermosphere

Abstract

The Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) is a far ultraviolet spectrometer on-board the Emirates Mars Mission's (EMM) which arrived at Mars on 9 February 2021. EMUS is designed to observe key neutral species in the Martian thermosphere (100–200 km) and exosphere (≥200 km). EMUS has observed two neutral argon (Ar) emission lines, Ar I 104.8 nm and Ar I 106.6 nm, in the thermosphere. Our interest in these emissions stem from argon's non-reactiveness, making it a tracer for transport between the upper and lower atmosphere. We report average argon disk brightness measured by EMUS and compare them to measurements from Earth orbiting observatories. For the first time, this work investigates the variability of Ar I 106.6 nm brightness due to emission angles, solar zenith angles, solar longitudes, local times and latitudes. To contrast the behavior of inert argon we compare these results with the photochemically reactive oxygen 135.6 nm.

Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) Far ultraviolet Martian thermosphere Argon emissions Oxygen emissions
Publication year
2022
Research Areas
Space Exploration
Publisher
AGU GRL special collection: The First Results from the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)
DOI
10.1029/2022gl099852
Research Type
Research Letter
Related Papers