Reflectance study of ice and Mars soil simulant associations -- II. CO$_2$ and H$_2$O ice

TL;DR

This study investigates the spectral reflectance of ice and soil analogues relevant to Mars, revealing how minor water ice content can mask CO2 signatures and aiding interpretation of Martian surface spectra.

Contribution

It provides new laboratory spectral data on CO2 and H2O ice mixtures with Martian soil simulant, improving spectral interpretation methods for Mars surface analysis.

Findings

Water ice masks CO2 spectral signatures at low concentrations.

Minor water ice influences the texture and evolution of ice-soil mixtures.

Spectral parameters can identify specific ice and soil compositions.

Abstract

We measure the visible and near-infrared reflectance of icy analogues of the Martian surface made of CO$_2$ ice associated in different ways with H$_2$O ice and the regolith simulant JSC Mars-1. Such experimental results obtained with well-controlled samples in the laboratory are precious to interpret quantitatively the imaging and spectral data collected by various Mars orbiters, landers and rovers. Producing and maintaining well-characterized icy samples while acquiring spectro-photometric measurements is however challenging and we discuss some of the difficulties encountered in preparing and measuring our samples. We present the results in the form of photometric and spectral criteria computed from the spectra and plotted as a function of the composition and physical properties of the samples. Consistent with previous studies, we find that when intimately mixed with other materials, including water ice, CO$_2$ ice becomes rapidly undetectable due to its low absorptivity. As low as 5 wt.$\%$ of fine-grained H$_2$O ice is enough to mask entirely the signatures of CO$_2$. Similarly, sublimation experiments performed with ternary mixtures of CO$_2$ ice, H$_2$O ice and JSC Mars-1 show that water, even when present as a minor component (3 wt.$\%$), determines the texture and evolution of the mixtures. We assess the ability of various combinations of spectral parameters to identify samples with H$_2$O, CO$_2$, JSC Mars-1, or various mixtures from their reflectance and orient our study to helping interpret ice and soil reflectance spectra from the Martian surface. From the laboratory spectra, we simulate the colour signal generated by the CaSSIS instrument to allow for direct comparisons with results from this instrument and provide to databases the necessary spectral data to perform the same operations with other instruments.