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[15.03] The Influence of Martian Global Dust Storm 2001A on CO₂ Hot Band Emission As Observed by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer

W.C. Maguire, J.C. Pearl, M.D. Smith (NASA/GSFC), B.J. Conrath (CRSR Cornell U.), A.A. Kutepov (Max Planck Institute), P.R. Christensen (Arizona State U.)

The Thermal Emission Spectrometer on Mars Global Surveyor observed the genesis and evolution of a major dust storm beginning on 26 June 2001 at areocentric longitude L_s = 185°. The atmospheric temperature at 0.5 mbar (~25 km above the surface) reached a maximum for 200° < L_s < 220°(~23 July 2001 to ~23 August 2001). The middle atmosphere temperature was ~40K warmer during this time than the corresponding L_s interval (~4 September 1999 to ~6 October 1999) in the previous Martian year. (Smith et al., Icarus 157 , 259-263 (2001)). The altitude of the region of nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) emission from the 10\mum CO₂ hot bands rose ~10 km compared to the earlier time. We present preliminary modeling of this emission region, comparing it to our previous modeling of non-LTE CO₂ hot band seasonal variation (Maguire et al., J.G.R. 107, 10.1029/2001JE001516, 2002).

This work was supported in part by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #3< br> © 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.