From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>
Date: October 25, 2005 11:16:20 AM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: MER B on Mars
In addition to transparency I was wondering about turbulence - is there "seeing" in the martian atmosphere to contend with?
thanks -
Alan
On Oct 25, 2005, at 12:55 PM, Tim wrote:
Alan:
Very much so. Dust clouds in particular can be pretty opaque. Water or CO2 clouds aren't
always (though the polar hoods are).
Right now at Meridiani Planum, the atmosphere is pretty dusty due to the regional storm
to the west. This affects the solar power available to the rovers, but not as much as dust
settling on the panels themselves. Fortunately, both rovers have been "cleaned" from time
to time by local winds. I'm wondering whether we'll start having problems again (like
around the end of the nominal mission) with settling outpacing these cleaning events as
Mars' atmosphere "settles down" again after the current dust storm season is over. Only
time will tell.
-Tim.
--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Alan Friedman <alan@g...> wrote:
>
> Hi Tim -
>
> Fascinating. Does the martian atmosphere affect imaging from the
> orbiter looking in as ours does looking out?
>
> Alan
>
>
>
> On Oct 24, 2005, at 6:18 PM, Tim wrote:
>
> > Hi guys:
> >
> > Check this out:
> >
> > http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/10/24/index.html
> >
> > Before and after images, taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (about a
> > 14" Cass) on Mars Global
> > Surveyor, of the rover near "Erebus Crater" on October 5th. I keep
> > our location map up to
> > date with daily panoramas from the rover mosaicked with the MOC
> > images taken before and
> > after landing, so it was cool to have independent verification from
> > orbit of my prediction
> > (within a meter or so) of where the rover was with respect to ground
> > features.
> >
> > It's also weird going from centimeter/pixel (or higher resolution)
> > images of Mars at my "day
> > job" to something more like hundreds of kilometers/pixel at night
> > from home!Â
> >
> > Of course, I haven't even seen the sky since Friday, since we're
> > socked in with the marine
> > layer!
> >
> > -Tim.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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