On the impact of the vertical structure of Martian water ice clouds on nadir atmospheric retrievals from simultaneous EMM/EXI and TGO/ACS-MIR observations

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Autori principali: Stcherbinine, Aurélien, Wolff, Michael J., Edwards, Christopher S., Korablev, Oleg, Fedorova, Anna, Trokhimovskiy, Alexander
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Stcherbinine, Aurélien
Wolff, Michael J.
Edwards, Christopher S.
Korablev, Oleg
Fedorova, Anna
Trokhimovskiy, Alexander
author_facet Stcherbinine, Aurélien
Wolff, Michael J.
Edwards, Christopher S.
Korablev, Oleg
Fedorova, Anna
Trokhimovskiy, Alexander
contents Retrieving the optical depth of the Martian clouds ($τ_\mathrm{cld}$) is a powerful way to monitor their spatial and temporal evolution. However, such retrievals from nadir imagery rely on several assumptions, including the vertical structure of the clouds in the atmosphere. Here we compare the results of cloud optical depth retrievals at 320 nm from the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) onboard the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) "Hope" orbiter performed using a basic uniform cloud profile used in previous studies and using derived cloud profiles obtained from near-simultaneous Solar Occultation observations in the 3.1-3.4 $μ$m spectral range from the Middle-Infrared channel of the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) instrument onboard the ESA Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). We show that the latitudinal dependence of the cloud vertical profiles can have a strong impact on the nadir retrievals; neglecting it can lead to a significant underestimation of $τ_\mathrm{cld}$ in the polar regions (up to 25 % to 50 %, depending on the vertical distribution of the dust in the atmosphere) and to a lesser extent, to an overestimation of $τ_\mathrm{cld}$ around the equator. We also discuss the impact of a vertically-dependent particle size profile, as previous studies have shown the presence of very small water ice particles at the top of the clouds. From this analysis, we provide recommendations for the improvement of water ice cloud parameterization in radiative transfer algorithms in nadir atmospheric retrievals.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_14993
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the impact of the vertical structure of Martian water ice clouds on nadir atmospheric retrievals from simultaneous EMM/EXI and TGO/ACS-MIR observations
Stcherbinine, Aurélien
Wolff, Michael J.
Edwards, Christopher S.
Korablev, Oleg
Fedorova, Anna
Trokhimovskiy, Alexander
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Retrieving the optical depth of the Martian clouds ($τ_\mathrm{cld}$) is a powerful way to monitor their spatial and temporal evolution. However, such retrievals from nadir imagery rely on several assumptions, including the vertical structure of the clouds in the atmosphere. Here we compare the results of cloud optical depth retrievals at 320 nm from the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) onboard the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) "Hope" orbiter performed using a basic uniform cloud profile used in previous studies and using derived cloud profiles obtained from near-simultaneous Solar Occultation observations in the 3.1-3.4 $μ$m spectral range from the Middle-Infrared channel of the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) instrument onboard the ESA Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). We show that the latitudinal dependence of the cloud vertical profiles can have a strong impact on the nadir retrievals; neglecting it can lead to a significant underestimation of $τ_\mathrm{cld}$ in the polar regions (up to 25 % to 50 %, depending on the vertical distribution of the dust in the atmosphere) and to a lesser extent, to an overestimation of $τ_\mathrm{cld}$ around the equator. We also discuss the impact of a vertically-dependent particle size profile, as previous studies have shown the presence of very small water ice particles at the top of the clouds. From this analysis, we provide recommendations for the improvement of water ice cloud parameterization in radiative transfer algorithms in nadir atmospheric retrievals.
title On the impact of the vertical structure of Martian water ice clouds on nadir atmospheric retrievals from simultaneous EMM/EXI and TGO/ACS-MIR observations
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.14993