For the first time, the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) instrument on board the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) ‘Hope’, is providing us with the temperature measurements of Mars at all local times covering most of the planet. As a result, it is now possible to compare surface temperature measurements made from orbit with those from the surface by rovers during the same time period. We use data of diurnal temperature variation from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) suite on board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) ‘Curiosity’ rover, and the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) suite on board the Mars 2020 ‘Perseverance’ rover, between June and August 2021 and compare them with EMIRS observations and estimates of the Mars Climate Database (MCD) model. We show that although the overall trend of temperature variation is in excellent agreement across missions, EMIRS measurements are systematically lower at night compared to Mars 2020. The lower spatial resolution of EMIRS compared to the rovers and consequently lower average thermal inertia of the observed regions in this particular case primarily contributed to this discrepancy, among other factors. We discuss the implications of these results in improving our understanding of the Martian climate which would lead to better modeling of local weather prediction, useful for future robotic and crewed missions.
<div>The ~55 hour orbit of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) or the &#8220;Hope'" orbiter enables it to achieve a near-global coverage of the planet every 4 orbits, or ~9 sols. The Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) instrument on board EMM is used to retrieve surface temperatures. We study the geographical and temporal variation of surface temperature on diurnal and seasonal timescales. We compare these measurements with NASA&#8217;s rover measurements &#8212; &#160;from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) suite on board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" rover, and the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) suite on board the Mars 2020 "Perseverance&#8221; rover. We also compare these measurements with the Mars Climate Database (MCD), identify anomalies in surface temperature and discuss the role of thermal inertia. We discuss other implications of these findings leading to a better understanding of temperature variation on Mars and its impact on weather and climate. &#160;</div> <p>&#160;</p>
<p>Auroras are an important probe for characterizing the interaction of solar wind with the induced magnetosphere of Mars and understanding the evolution of Mars&#8217;s atmosphere. Since their first discovery in 2005, Mars auroras have been studied extensively, particularly using the observations from NASA&#8217;s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN). Electron auroras with discrete and diffuse morphology are observed on the nightside of Mars whereas proton auroras are observed mainly on the dayside of Mars. Recently the Emirates Mars UV Spectrometer (EMUS) onboard the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) has discovered new morphologies of sinuous electron auroras and patchy proton auroras on Mars. In this work, we perform comprehensive statistical analyses of aurora observations to understand the processes responsible for the varied auroral activity on Mars. We systematically isolate electron aurora regions from the nightside EMUS observations and characterize their occurrences and emissions with respect to the crustal magnetic fields, IMF, and electron energies measured by MAVEN. We also develop a purely data-driven model of proton auroras on Mars using MAVEN in-situ observations and UV limb scans between 2014-2022 to train an artificial neural network (ANN). We show that the ANN faithfully reconstructs the observed proton aurora limb scans profiles. We use the trained ANN to analyze the influence of Mars&#8217; crustal magnetic field and IMF on the occurrence rates of the proton auroras using gradient-based attribution maps.&#160;</p>
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