MRO/CRISM Retrieval of Surface Lambert Albedos for Multispectral Mapping of Mars with DISORT-based Rad. Transfer Modeling: Phase 1 - Using Historical Climatology for Temperatures, Aerosol Opacities, & Atmo. Pressures

TL;DR

This paper presents a DISORT-based radiative transfer pipeline for correcting MRO/CRISM multispectral data of Mars to derive surface Lambert albedos, using climatological inputs for atmospheric parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a novel atmospheric correction method for Mars surface spectra using climatology-based inputs within a DISORT framework.

Findings

Successfully applied to Mars surface data from various regions.

Demonstrated the importance of aerosols in spectral correction near polar ice caps.

Lays groundwork for future retrieval of atmospheric parameters from CRISM data.

Abstract

We discuss the DISORT-based radiative transfer pipeline ('CRISM_LambertAlb') for atmospheric and thermal correction of MRO/CRISM data acquired in multispectral mapping mode (~200 m/pixel, 72 spectral channels). Currently, in this phase-one version of the system, we use aerosol optical depths, surface temperatures, and lower-atmospheric temperatures, all from climatology derived from Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MGS-TES) data, and surface altimetry derived from MGS Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). The DISORT-based model takes as input the dust and ice aerosol optical depths (scaled to the CRISM wavelength range), the surface pressures (computed from MOLA altimetry, MGS-TES lower-atmospheric thermometry, and Viking-based pressure climatology), the surface temperatures, the reconstructed instrumental photometric angles, and the measured I/F spectrum, and then outputs a Lambertian albedo spectrum. The Lambertian albedo spectrum is valuable geologically since it allows the mineralogical composition to be estimated. Here, I/F is defined as the ratio of the radiance measured by CRISM to the solar irradiance at Mars divided by $\pi$. After discussing the capabilities and limitations of the pipeline software system, we demonstrate its application on several multispectral data cubes: the outer northern ice cap of Mars, Tyrrhena Terra, and near the landing site for the Phoenix mission. For the icy spectra near the northern polar cap, aerosols need to be included in order to properly correct for the CO_2 absorption in the H_{2}O ice bands at wavelengths near 2.0 $\mu$m. In future phases of software development, we intend to use CRISM data directly in order to retrieve the spatiotemporal maps of aerosol optical depths, surface pressure and surface temperature.