Detection and Quantification of Volatiles at Mars using a multispectral LIDAR

TL;DR

This paper proposes a multispectral, polarization-sensitive lidar instrument for Mars to map and analyze the seasonal distribution of volatiles, aerosols, and surface-atmosphere interactions, enhancing understanding of Martian polar processes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multispectral, polarization-sensitive lidar concept tailored for Mars exploration to detect and quantify surface and atmospheric volatiles and aerosols.

Findings

Suitable for mapping CO2 and H2O frost phenomena

Can detect sublimation and deposition mode flips

Provides altitude-resolved measurements of surface and atmospheric properties

Abstract

We present a concept for using a polarization sensitive multispectral lidar to map the seasonal distribution and exchange of volatiles among the reservoirs of the Martian surface and atmosphere. The LIDAR instrument will be a multi-wavelength, altitude-resolved, active near-infrared (NIR, with 10 bands around 1.6 microns) instrument to measure the reflected intensity and polarization of backscattered radiation from planetary surfaces and atmospheres. The proposed instrument would be ideally suited for a mission to Mars to comprehensively investigate the nature and seasonal distributions of volatiles and aerosols. The investigation would include the abundance of atmospheric dust and condensed volatiles, surface and cloud/aerosol grain sizes and shapes, ice and dust particle microphysics and also variations in atmospheric chemistry during multiple overflight local times throughout polar night and day. Such an instrument would be ideal for mapping and detection of recently detected CO2 frost phenomena and H2O and CO2 precipitation events in the polar regions of Mars. Herein we discuss the applicability of this instrument to detect and map sublimation/deposition 'mode flips' recently discovered by Brown et al. (2016) using the CRISM passive infrared sensor on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.