Related papers: Modelling Slope Microclimates in the Mars Planetar…
Here we discuss one of the current reservoirs of water on Mars, the regolith and rocks exposed at the surface. This reservoir is characterized by the presence of H_{2}O- and OH- bearing phases that produce a broad absorption at a wavelength…
Ancient sediments provide archives of climate and habitability on Mars. Gale Crater, the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), hosts a 5 km high sedimentary mound. Hypotheses for mound formation include evaporitic, lacustrine,…
The springtime sublimation process of Mars' southern seasonal polar CO$_2$ ice cap features dark fan-shaped deposits appearing on the top of the thawing ice sheet. The fan material likely originates from the surface below the ice sheet,…
We carried out wind tunnel experiments on parabolic flights with 100 $\mu$m Mojave Mars simulant sand. The experiments result in shear stress thresholds and erosion rates for varying g-levels at 600 Pa pressure. Our data confirm former…
We investigate the influence of impacts of large planetesimals and small planetary embryos on the early Martian surface on the hydrodynamic escape of an early steam atmosphere that is exposed to the high soft X-ray and EUV flux of the young…
Heat flow is an important constraint on planetary formation and evolution. It has been suggested that Martian obliquity cycles might cause periodic collapses in atmospheric pressure, leading to corresponding decreases in regolith thermal…
We present a new database of $>$300 layer-orientations from sedimentary mounds on Mars. These layer orientations, together with draped landslides, and draping of rocks over differentially-eroded paleo-domes, indicate that for the…
We have reconstructed longitude-latitude maps of column dust optical depth (CDOD) for Martian year (MY) 34 (May 5, 2017 --- March 23, 2019) using observations by the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter…
Despite the low solar irradiation it receives, Neptune shows a very active atmosphere with some of the most intense dynamics observed in Solar System atmospheres. Characterizing the atmospheric temperature profiles of the planet is a key to…
Robustly modeling the inner edge of the habitable zone is essential for determining the most promising potentially habitable exoplanets for atmospheric characterization. Global climate models (GCMs) have become the standard tool for…
Mars is the only planet, other than Earth, for which there are several evidences that liquid water was abundant at the surface. Among them, one of the best evidence is that the ancient terrains of Mars are covered with fluvial and…
We use a one-dimensional line-by-line radiative-convective model to simulate hot, dense terrestrial-planet atmospheres. We find that strong shortwave absorption by H2O and CO2 inhibits near-surface convection, reducing surface temperatures…
The spectral signature of water ice was observed on Martian south polar cap in 2004 by the Observatoire pour l'Mineralogie, l'Eau les Glaces et l'Activite (OMEGA) (Bibring et al., 2004). Three years later, the OMEGA instrument was used to…
Space weather observations and modeling at Mars have begun but they must be significantly increased to support the future of Human Exploration on the Red Planet. A comprehensive space weather understanding of a planet without a global…
Planet Mars past environmental conditions were similar to the early Earth, but nowadays they are similar to those of a very cold desert, irradiated by intense solar UV light. However, some terrestrial lifeform showed the capability to adapt…
We investigate the feasibility and demonstrate the merits of using Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) profiles to retrieve seasonal height variations of CO2 snow/ice cap in Mars' polar areas by applying a co-registration strategy. We…
The Martian upper atmosphere is known to vary diurnally and seasonally due to changing amounts of solar radiation. However, in the upper thermosphere and exosphere, the neutrals are also subject to ion precipitation. This can increase the…
Atmospheric heat redistribution shapes the remote appearance of rocky exoplanets but there is currently no easy way to predict a planet's heat redistribution from its physical properties. This paper proposes an analytical scaling theory for…
We present a statistical analysis on the variability of the incompressible energy cascade rate in the solar wind around Mars, making use of an exact relation for fully developed turbulence and more than five years of Mars Atmosphere and…
In the next decade, two rovers will characterize in situ the mineralogy of rocks on Mars, using for the first time near-infrared reflectance spectrometers: SuperCam onboard the Mars 2020 rover and MicrOmega onboard the ExoMars rover,…