Title: Mesospheric winds and temperatures from JCMT sub-millimeter CO line observations during the 2003 and 2005 Mars oppositions
Abstract: . Introduction: The Aug/Sept 2003 and Oct/Nov 2005 oppositions of Mars occurred near perihelion, presenting maximum angular resolution as viewed from the Earth (25 and 20 arcsec, respectively) as well as peak zonal and meridional winds within the Mars atmosphere. During both oppositions, we obtained measurements of sub-millimeter Mars rotational lines for CO (345.796 GHz) and CO (330.588 GHz) at five coarsely resolved positions on the Mars disk; corresponding to center, east, west, north and south limb offsets from the 20S, 50E140W sub-earth positions observed on Mars (figure 1). These high signal/noise absorption spectra allow accurate determinations for coarsely resolved (~20 km vertical, ~3000 km horizontal) zonal and meridional winds at 35-80 km altitudes, as well as atmospheric temperature profiles over 0-80 km altitudes.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 7
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