Search Publications
Geomorphological study of the gullies in Penticton Crater, Mars: Classification and origin
Natarajan, Varsha; K N, Kusuma; Nandana, D. Lekshmi
Penticton crater, a southern hemisphere mid-latitude crater on Mars, is covered with features that are typical examples of Martian gullies that resemble the terrestrial gullies on Earth. We studied the gullies present in the Penticton crater, classified them and interpreted their formation mechanism using a remote sensing approach. A wide variety …
The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express: A new science instrument made from an old webcam orbiting Mars
Hernández-Bernal, Jorge; Cardesín-Moinelo, Alejandro; Hueso, Ricardo +17 more
The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) is a small imaging instrument onboard Mars Express with a field of view of ∼40°x30°. 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 origin…
Structural study of graben within the Margaritifer Terra region of Mars
Dasgupta, Dipayan; Kundu, Abhik; Basu, Supratik +1 more
The surface of Mars preserves a variety of structural and geomorphic features such as wrinkle ridges, graben, lobate scarps, impact basins, paleochannels etc., which owe their origin to endogenic processes of deformation as well as meteorite impacts. Graben, which form in extensional stress regimes, are one of the most common structural features i…
Seasonal variation in atmospheric optical depth (AOD) and thermal inertia (TI) inter-relationship over Martian Gale crater
Shaheen, Farzana; Krishna, A. P.; Nee Lala, Mili Ghosh +1 more
Investigating the relationship between thermal inertia (TI) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) is significant in giving insights into the seasonality of dust deposition and lifting phenomenon. The present study focuses on establishing a relationship of AOD with TI and different particle sizes over different Martian seasons. Two different Martian land…
Possible influence of Martian surface mineralogy on the detectability of atmospheric trace gases - mid-infrared simulation results
Błęcka, Maria I.
The paper focuses on the influence of the optical properties of Martian surface minerals on remotely detected gaseous components of the Martian atmosphere, when the spectrometer receives a combined signal from the Martian soil and atmosphere. Our considerations are primarily concerned with the detectability of methane, but the problem may also app…
Using synthetic disk-integrated reflectance spectra to constrain direct imaging sensitivity requirements for a Mars-like exoplanet
Wolfe, C. A.; Robinson, T. D.
The 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 11https://doi.org/10.17226/26141. recommended the prioritization of a space-based telescope capable of directly characterizing Earth-like exoplanets in reflected light. The planned suite of instruments onboard such a mission are expected to provide disk-integrated spectra with modera…
Effects of stealth CME to ion energisation at ionospheric altitudes of Mars
Thampi, Smitha V.; Venkataraman, V.
The declining phase of Solar cycle 24 produced a slow coronal mass ejection (CME), which was categorized as stealth CME based on the absence of associated low coronal signatures. This CME impacted Mars and caused a major space weather event during 27-28 August 2018 (max vsw = 580 km s-1 near 1.5 AU). The impact of the stealth…
A CaSSIS and HiRISE map of the Clay-bearing Unit at the ExoMars 2022 landing site in Oxia Planum
Quantin-Nataf, Cathy; Pajola, Maurizio; Cremonese, Gabriele +8 more
In preparation for the operations of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, characterising its landing site in Oxia Planum is essential. Of particular interest is the extensive Clay-bearing Unit present at the site, a key target in the search for biosignatures. In this paper we provide a map based on variations in colour and spectral information wit…
Automated Crater detection from Co-registered optical images, elevation maps and slope maps using deep learning
Tewari, Atal; Verma, Vinay; Srivastava, Pradeep +2 more
Craters are topographic structures resulting from impactors striking the surface of planetary bodies. This paper proposes a novel way of simultaneously utilizing optical images, digital elevation maps (DEMs), and slope maps for automatic crater detection on the lunar surface. The proposed system utilizes Mask R-CNN by tuning it for the crater dete…
Prospects for mapping temporal height variations of the seasonal CO2 snow/ice caps at the Martian poles by co-registration of MOLA profiles
Oberst, Jürgen; Schmidt, Frédéric; Steinbrügge, Gregor +3 more
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 present a prototype analysis on the research region of [85.75°S, 86.25°S, 300°E, 330°E] that is located…