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Science 17 December 1976:
Vol. 194. no. 4271, pp. 1346 - 1351
DOI: 10.1126/science.194.4271.1346
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Articles

Temperatures of the Martian Surface and Atmosphere: Viking Observation of Diurnal and Geometric Variations

HUGH H. KIEFFER 1, PHILIP R. CHRISTENSEN 1, TERRY Z. MARTIN 1, ELLIS D. MINER 2, and FRANK D. PALLUCONI 2

1 University of California, Los Angeles 90024
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91103

Selected observations made with the Viking infrared thermal mapper after the first landing are reported. Atmospheric temperatures measured at the latitude of the Viking 2 landing site (48 ° N) over most of a martian day reveal a diurnal variation of at least 15 K, with peak temperatures occurring near 2.2 hours after noon, implying significant absorption of sunlight in the lower 30 km of the atmosphere by entrained dust. The summit temperature of Arsia Mons varies by a factor of nearly two each day; large diurnal temperature variation is characteristic of the south Tharsis upland and implies the presence of low thermal inertia material. The thermal inertia of material on the floors of several typical large craters is found to be higher than for the surrounding terrain; this suggests that craters are somehow effective in sorting aeolian material. Brightness temperatures of the Viking 1 landing area decrease at large emission angles; the intensity of reflected sunlight shows a more complex dependence on geometry than expected, implying atmospheric as well as surface scattering.

Submitted on November 16, 1976


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Scientific Results of the Viking Missions.
G. A. Soffen and G. A. SOFFEN (1976)
Science 194, 1274-1276
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