New improvements in the Infrared atmospheric sensor for the Mars MetNet Mission

Abstract

There are two main agents that govern surface temperature and the heat transfer process in the Martian atmosphere: CO2 and suspended dust. Dust is a major agent of atmospheric motions at all scales and has great influence on the morphological evolution of the Martian surface and its climate. The flight model (FM) of the current Dust Sensor (DS) of the Mars MetNet Mission for measuring the particle size distribution, in charge of The Infrared Lab of Carlos III University (LIR-UC3M), has already been fabricated and successfully tested. The optimized sensor proposed in this work includes two subinstruments more to be added to the DS for measuring both CO2 concentration and ground temperature. Its main goal is to maintain it as a micro-sensor (mass <;100 g and mean power <;1W). All of these parameters will be measured in-situ, giving very valuable information about the Martian Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). The optimized Sensor incorporates simultaneously angular and spectral resolution. The incorporation of new parameters such as CO2 concentration and ground temperature is possible thanks to the introduction of a new multispectral sensor with more single elements, properly tuned to the new spectral bands.