NSF/AFOSR Astronomy: Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Atmospheric Aerosol Content of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn

利用AEOS 3.67米自适应光学望远镜，通过正在进行的高空间分辨率图像收集程序，将对土星、木星和火星大气中的时间变异性进行调查。窄带通滤波器是针对巨行星大气中的高度识别进行优化的，AEOS仪器中已有的滤波器将用于识别所有三个行星大气中的气溶胶，并研究火星上的表面反射率特征。目前绕火星运行的航天器每天提供整个行星的太阳同步视图，但不提供大多数位置的时间信息。AEOS图像是在设施正常运作的短时间内收集的，可以确定一天中时间变化的重要性，这些变化表现为地面扬尘和/或对流扬尘上升到风速较大的高海拔地区。这补充了轨道飞行器提供的有限的全天全球视图。对巨行星大气的长时间监测，特别是它们的气溶胶分布，将有助于更好地理解这些大气的动力学。由于怀疑土星上的大风暴事件的季节性驱动，在接近南夏至的这段时间内进行监测（土星上最近的对流风暴发生在北夏至附近）可能会提供“预测”能力，如果任何风暴事件在未来几年内发生。长时间覆盖将使研究人员能够回顾数据集，并寻找以前未被识别的土星大气中对流活动的前兆特征。

Time variability within the atmospheres of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars will be investigated via an ongoing high spatial resolution image collection program employing the AEOS 3.67-meter adaptive optics telescope. Narrow bandpass filters, which are optimized for altitude discrimination in the giant planet atmospheres, and filters already available with the AEOS instrument, will be utilized to discriminate aerosols in all three planetary atmospheres and study surface reflectance characteristics on Mars. Current spacecraft orbiting Mars provide a sun-synchronous view of the entire planet each day, but do not provide time-of-day information at most locations. The AEOS images, collected within short windows of opportunity amongst the normal operations of the facility, will enable the determination of the importance of time-of-day variations as manifested by surface dust lifting and/or convective dust lofting to high altitudes where wind speeds are large. This complements the limited time-of-day global view provided by the orbiters. Long timeline monitoring of the giant planet atmospheres, specifically their aerosol distribution, will assist in better understanding the dynamics of these atmospheres. With the suspected seasonal driving of large storm events on Saturn, monitoring during this time period near southern summer solstice (the most recent convective storm on Saturn occurred near northern summer solstice) might provide a 'forecast' capability, should any storm event occur in the next several years. Long temporal coverage will enable the investigators to look back into the data set and search for previously unrecognized precursor signatures of convective activity in Saturn's atmosphere.