Water vapor vertical distribution in the Martian atmosphere from TGO/NOMAD observations
Aoki, S.; Vandaele, A. C.; Daerden, F.; Villanueva, G. L.; Erwin, J. T.; Trompet, L.; Ristic, B.; Patel, M. R.; Bellucci, G.; Forget, F.; López-Valverde, M. A.; Funke, B.; Thomas, I.; Brines, A.; Sotlzenbach, A.; Modak, A.; González Galindo, F.; Luizzi, G.; Grabowski, U.; López Moreno, J. J.; Rodríguez-Gómez, J.
Spain, Belgium, Japan, United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy
Abstract
The water vapor in the Martian atmosphere plays a significant role in the planet's current and past climate, being crucial in important chemical processes like those involved in the stability of the CO$_{2}$. The recent ExoMars 2016 mission, with its NOMAD Solar Occultation channel spectrometer onboard the Trace Gas Orbiter, allowed us to measure the H$_2$O vertical distribution with unprecedented resolution. Recent studies of vertical profiles have shown that high dust concentration in the atmosphere, in particular during dust storms, induces an efficient transport of the H$_2$O to higher altitudes, from 40 km up to 80 km. Here we present the water vapor vertical distributions obtained for the Martian Years 34 and 35, covering the Global Dust Strom (GDS) event of 2018 (during MY 34) and hence, characterizing how it varies under very different dusty conditions. The direct comparison of the same season in these two consecutive Martian Years allowed us to confirm the strong impact of the GDS in the water distribution.