Article (Scientific journals)
Methane on Mars: New insights into the sensitivity of CH 4 with the NOMAD/ExoMars spectrometer through its first in-flight calibration
Liuzzi, G.; Villanueva, G. L.; Mumma, M. J. et al.
2019In Icarus, 321, p. 671-690
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Keywords :
Infrared spectroscopy; Instrumentation; Mars atmosphere; Methane; NOMAD
Abstract :
[en] The Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery instrument (NOMAD), onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft was conceived to observe Mars in solar occultation, nadir, and limb geometries, and will be able to produce an outstanding amount of diverse data, mostly focused on properties of the atmosphere. The infrared channels of the instrument operate by combining an echelle grating spectrometer with an Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter (AOTF). Using in-flight data, we characterized the instrument performance and parameterized its calibration. In particular: an accurate frequency calibration was achieved, together with its variability due to thermal effects on the grating. The AOTF properties and transfer function were also quantified, and we developed and tested a realistic method to compute the spectral continuum transmitted through the coupled grating and AOTF system. The calibration results enabled unprecedented insights into the important problem of the sensitivity of NOMAD to methane abundances in the atmosphere. We also deeply characterized its performance under realistic conditions of varying aerosol abundances, diverse albedos and changing illumination conditions as foreseen over the nominal mission. The results show that, in low aerosol conditions, NOMAD single spectrum, 1σ sensitivity to CH 4 is around 0.33 ppbv at 20 km of altitude when performing solar occultations, and better than 1 ppbv below 30 km. In dusty conditions, we show that the sensitivity drops to 0 below 10 km. In Nadir geometry, results demonstrate that NOMAD will be able to produce seasonal maps of CH 4 with a sensitivity around 5 ppbv over most of planet's surface with spatial integration over 5 × 5° bins. Results show also that such numbers can be improved by a factor of ~10 to ~30 by data binning. Overall, our results quantify NOMAD's capability to address the variable aspects of Martian climate. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Liuzzi, G.;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States, Department of Physics, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Av., Washington, DC 20016, United States
Villanueva, G. L.;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
Mumma, M. J.;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
Smith, M. D.;  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
Daerden, F.;  Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, Ringlaan 3, Brussels, 1180, Belgium
Ristic, B.;  Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, Ringlaan 3, Brussels, 1180, Belgium
Thomas, I.;  Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, Ringlaan 3, Brussels, 1180, Belgium
Vandaele, A. C.;  Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, Ringlaan 3, Brussels, 1180, Belgium
Patel, M. R.;  School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom, SSTD, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
Lopez-Moreno, J.-J.;  Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, IAA-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomia, Granada, 18008, Spain
Bellucci, G.;  Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, IAPS-INAF, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome, 00133, Italy
Allen, M.
Alonso-Rodrigo, G.
Altieri, F.
Aoki, Shohei ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Labo de physique atmosphérique et planétaire (LPAP)
Bauduin, Simon ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'aérospatiale et mécanique > Ingénierie des véhicules terrestres
Bolsée, D.
Clancy, T.
Cloutis, E.
D'Aversa, E.
Depiesse, C.
Erwin, J.
Fedorova, A.
Formisano, V.
Funke, B.
Fussen, D.
Garcia-Comas, M.
Geminale, A.
Gérard, Jean-Claude  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Gillotay, D.
Giuranna, M.
Gonzalez-Galindo, F.
Hewson, W.
Homes, J.
Ignatiev, N.
Kaminski, J.
Karatekin, O.
Kasaba, Y.
Lanciano, O.
Lefèvre, F.
Lewis, S.
López- Puertas, M.
López-Valverde, M.
Mahieux, A.
Mason, J.
Mc Connell, J.
Hiromu Neary Nakagawa, L.
Neefs, E.
Novak, R.
Oliva, F.
Piccialli, A.
Robert, S.
Sindoni, G.
Stiepen, Arnaud ;  Université de Liège - ULiège
Trokhimovskiy, A.
Vander Auwera, Jean
Viscardy, S.
Whiteway, J.
Willame, Y.
Wilquet, V.
Wolff, M.
Wolkenberg, P.
Alonso-Rodrigo, G.
Aparicio del Moral, B.
Barzin, P.
Beeckman, B.
BenMoussa, A.
Berkenbosch, S.
Biondi, D.
Bonnewijn, S.
Candini, G. P.
Clairquin, R.
Cubas, J.
Giordanengo, B.
Gissot, S.
Gomez, A.
Hathi, B.
Jeronimo Zafra, J.
Leese, M.
Maes, J.
Mazy, Emmanuel ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)
Mazzoli, Alexandra  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)
Meseguer, J.
Morales, R.
Orban, Anne ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)
Pastor-Morales, M.
Perez-grande, I.
Queirolo, C.
Rodriguez Gomez, J.
Saggin, B.
Samain, V.
Sanz Andres, A.
Sanz, R.
Simar, J.-F.
Thibert, Tanguy ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)
More authors (86 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Methane on Mars: New insights into the sensitivity of CH 4 with the NOMAD/ExoMars spectrometer through its first in-flight calibration
Publication date :
2019
Journal title :
Icarus
ISSN :
0019-1035
eISSN :
1090-2643
Publisher :
Academic Press Inc.
Volume :
321
Pages :
671-690
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
BELSPO - Politique scientifique fédérale [BE]
ASI - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana [IT]
UKSA - UK Space Agency [GB]
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