Observations of Phobos shadow: Analysis of parameters connecting Earth–Mars reference frames

Opportunities to observe solar eclipses by Phobos with the Mars Science Laboratory

“…To maximize the opportunities for observation and to optimize the predictions of eclipse times, we have studied how an observer with known coordinates, including elevations from a Mars DTM (Smith et al ), would watch these phenomena from a number of random landing sites within the MSL landing ellipse, for the dates previously characterized with the temporal chronogram (Table ). The projection of Phobos on to the Sun's disc plane, as seen from a Mars observer, has been modelled as an ellipse centred at the centre projection of Phobos, following Barderas & Romero (), as can be seen in Fig. from the simulated view of the eclipse to occur on 2012 September 17.…”

“…from the simulated view of the eclipse to occur on 2012 September 17. Barderas & Romero () used direct observations of Phobos eclipses, as seen from the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs; Bell et al ; Dean et al ), and indirect observations, from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA; Bills et al ), to analyse several sets of parameters that connect the reference systems of Earth and Mars. The parameters given by Burkhart (), Standish & Williams () and Archinal et al () have been used to predict observations from the MERs with a nearly null mean offset; these have been used in this work.…”

“…If the location of the MSL is already known by other means (radiometric data or cartographic images), eclipses could also be used for the following: to validate the Phobos orbit (Willner et al ); to estimate the rate of secular acceleration of Phobos and the rate of tidal dissipation within Mars (Bills et al ); to study the properties of the shallow subsurface of Mars, by analysing the surface thermal response to these events (Murray et al ) and its thermal inertia variations (Haberle ); or even to validate the parameters relating to Earth–Mars‐based reference systems (Barderas & Romero ).…”