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MRO MARCI Ice Cloud Optical Depth Products

The MARCI acquires a global view of the red planet and its weather patterns every day. The images in the ultraviolet (UV, Band 7; 320 nm) can be used to characterize the spatial and temporal behavior of atmospheric water ice. By exploiting the contrast of the bright ice clouds to the low albedo surface, we have developed a radiative transfer-based retrieval algorithm to derive the column-integrated optical depth of the ice.

For the most flexibility, this page is a portal to daily summary products at a resolution of 8 pixels per degree. The chosen projection is cylindrical, so it is not ideal for the polar regions.

Documentation

The retrieval algorithm and associated details are described by Wolff et al., 2019, Mapping Water Ice Clouds on Mars with MRO/MARCI, Icarus, 332, 24-49 ( doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.05.041 ).

Data Products

Products are available in FITS format. It has been discovered the the local time HDU had been flipped in the cross-track direction. Files with DATE keywords (date of file creation) before 2024 are affected. (As of 01-April-2024, MY 28-36 have been reprocessed.)
Daily summary product -- Mars years:     28   |   29   |   30   |   31   |   32   |   33   |   34   |   35   |   36

Requests for particular products not archived here or related questions?

Please email Mike Wolff at mjwolff (AT) spacescience (dot) org.

To use or cite the image(s) in a paper or report, please use the citation:


M. J. Wolff, R. T. Clancy, M. A. Kahre, R. M. Haberle, F. Forget, B. A. Cantor, M. C. Malin, 2019, Mapping water ice clouds on Mars with MRO/MARCI, Icarus, 332, 24-49, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.05.041


Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) built and operates the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover Mast Camera (Mastcam) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Mars Color Imager (MARCI) and Context Camera (CTX), and the Jupiter Orbiter (JUNO) camera (Junocam). MSSS also built and operated the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). In addition, MSSS built the Mars Odyssey (ODY) Thermal Emission Imaging Spectrometer (THEMIS) Visible (VIS) camera subsystem, which shares optics with the thermal infrared instrument and is operated at Arizona State University (ASU). MSSS also built the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) for the Phoenix Mars Scout lander and the suite of high resolution cameras aboard the 2009 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). MSSS is currently working on cameras for the 2016 Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REX) mission and the 2020 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission.

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