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High-Resolution Martian Soil Thickness Derived from Yearly Surface Temperatures

abstract: The temperature of a planet's surface depends on numerous physical factors, including thermal inertia, albedo and the degree of insolation. Mars is a good target for thermal measurements because the low atmospheric pressure combined with the extreme dryness results in a surface dominated by large differences in thermal inertia, minimizing the effect of other physical properties. Since heat is propagated into the surface during the day and re-radiated at night, surface temperatures are affected by sub-surface properties down to several thermal skin depths. Because of this, orbital surface temperature measurements combined with a computational thermal model can be used to determine sub-surface structure. This technique has previously been applied to estimate the thickness and thermal inertia of soil layers on Mars on a regional scale, but the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System "THEMIS" instrument allows much higher-resolution thermal imagery to be obtained. Using archived THEMIS data and the KRC thermal model, a process has been developed for creating high-resolution maps of Martian soil layer thickness and thermal inertia, allowing investigation of the distribution of dust and sand at a scale of 100 m/pixel. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Geological Sciences 2013

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:17871
Date January 2013
ContributorsHeath, Simon Nicholas (Author), Christensen, Philip (Advisor), Bel, James (Advisor), Hervig, Richard (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher)
Source SetsArizona State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeMasters Thesis
Format43 pages
Rightshttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved

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