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The oblique impact Hale and its consequences on Mars
Schultz, Peter H.; Wrobel, Kelly E.
Highly oblique impacts represent a rare and special class of impact events manifested as elliptical craters preserved on present-day planetary surfaces. Crater excavation in highly oblique impacts differs from that of standard vertical impacts due to early time asymmetries imparted by the downrange-directed coupling of energy between the projectil…
Dayside thermal structure of Venus' upper atmosphere characterized by a global model
Brecht, A. S.; Bougher, S. W.
Observations of Venus' dayside thermal structure are being conducted through ground based observatories. These temperature measurements, along with those from several instruments onboard the current Venus Express mission, are augmenting the previous thermal structure data from past missions (e.g., Veneras', Pioneer Venus Orbiter, Pioneer Venus Pro…
Iron mineralogy of the surface of Mars from the 1 µm band spectral properties
Bibring, J. -P.; Poulet, F.; Bellucci, G. +3 more
We study the 1 µm absorption from OMEGA/MEX spectra to map Martian iron mineralogy at a global scale. This band is covered on the left by the VNIR (visible and near infrared) OMEGA channel and on the right by the SWIR (short wavelengths infrared) one. We first perform a systematic spatial coregistration of the two channels after an improveme…
Solar-Storm/Lunar Atmosphere Model (SSLAM): An overview of the effort and description of the driving storm environment
Delory, G. T.; Halekas, J. S.; Farrell, W. M. +9 more
On 29 April 1998, a coronal mass ejection (CME) was emitted from the Sun that had a significant impact at Earth. The terrestrial magnetosphere became more electrically active during the storm passage. Less explored is the effect of such a storm on an exposed rocky body like our Moon. The solar-storm/lunar atmosphere modeling effort (SSLAM) brings …
A volcanotectonic survey of Ascraeus Mons, Mars
Byrne, Paul K.; Murray, John B.; van Wyk de Vries, Benjamin +1 more
Ascraeus Mons is one of the largest volcanoes on Mars. It is replete with well-preserved features that can be used to understand its volcanotectonic evolution. Previous studies of this volcano focused on specific features, and were limited by the quality and coverage of contemporary data. Our objective is to review and enhance the existing develop…
Edge detection applied to Cassini images reveals no measurable displacement of Ontario Lacus' margin between 2005 and 2010
Sotin, Christophe; Barnes, Jason W.; Le Mouélic, Stéphane +8 more
Ontario Lacus is thus far the largest flat-floored topographic depression of Titan's southern hemisphere interpreted as a permanent or ephemeral lake. From 2005 to 2010, it was imaged several times and at various wavelengths by ISS, VIMS and RADAR instruments onboard Cassini's spacecraft. We analyze the position and uncertainty of Ontario Lacus' m…
Lambert albedo retrieval and analyses over Aram Chaos from OMEGA hyperspectral imaging data
Liu, Yang; Arvidson, Raymond E.; Wolff, Michael J. +4 more
The DISORT radiative transfer model was used to retrieve Lambert albedos from 0.4 to 4.0 µm over hydrated sulfate deposits in Aram Chaos for the Mars Express OMEGA instrument. Albedos were also retrieved for a relatively anhydrous area to the north to use as a control for comparison to the hydrated sulfate spectra. Atmospheric gases and aero…
Morphometry of Great Basin pluvial shore landforms: Implications for paleolake basins on Mars
Zimbelman, James R.; Irwin, Rossman P., III
Many basins with relict contributing valley networks and outlet valleys in the Martian highlands indicate past flowing and ponded water on the surface. These likely paleolakes motivate an investigation of pluvial shore landforms in the Great Basin region of the western United States, as confident identification of strandlines on Mars would facilit…
Hydraulic modeling of a distributary channel of Athabasca Valles, Mars, using a high-resolution digital terrain model
Muller, Jan-Peter; Warner, Nicholas H.; Gupta, Sanjeev +2 more
Estimating magnitudes of flow rates in outflow channels has a central role in developing understanding of the paleohydrology of Mars. The typical approach to flow estimation is to identify geomorphic features, which indicate bankfull levels, and then use a hydraulic model to convert these levels into flow rates. Data constraints have meant that im…
On the application of simple rift basin models to the south polar region of Enceladus
Liemohn, M. W.; Walker, C. C.; Bassis, J. N.
The south polar terrain (SPT) of Saturn's moon Enceladus is a mysteriously active region that exhibits intriguing tectonic signatures and widespread fracturing. The central region of the nearly-circular SPT is depressed into the surface by a few hundred meters and bounded by a ring of cliffs roughly 1 km high. In this study, we investigate whether…