The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express: a new science instrument made from an old webcam orbiting Mars

TL;DR

The VMC on Mars Express, originally a webcam, was repurposed as a scientific instrument for Martian atmospheric studies, providing full-disk images and atmospheric videos that enhance understanding of Martian weather dynamics.

Contribution

This paper redefines the VMC as a scientific instrument, detailing new procedures for planning, executing, and sharing atmospheric observations of Mars.

Findings

VMC provides full-disk images of Mars at different local times.

The camera captures atmospheric dust and cloud dynamics through videos.

VMC's data is calibrated and shared for scientific research.

Abstract

The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) is a small imaging instrument onboard Mars Express with a field of view of ~40x30 degrees. The camera was initially intended to provide visual confirmation of the separation of the Beagle 2 lander and has similar technical specifications to a typical webcam of the 2000s. In 2007, a few years after the end of its original mission, VMC was turned on again to obtain full-disk images of Mars to be used for outreach purposes. As VMC obtained more images, the scientific potential of the camera became evident, and in 2018 the camera was given an upgraded status of a new scientific instrument, with science goals in the field of Martian atmosphere meteorology. The wide Field of View of the camera combined with the orbit of Mars Express enable the acquisition of full-disk images of the planet showing different local times, which for a long time has been rare among orbital missions around Mars. The small data volume of images also allows videos that show the atmospheric dynamics of dust and cloud systems to be obtained. This paper is intended to be the new reference paper for VMC as a scientific instrument, and thus provides an overview of the updated procedures to plan, command and execute science observations of the Martian atmosphere. These observations produce valuable science data that is calibrated and distributed to the community for scientific use.