Water on Mars: anomaly of a water index (1042/953) on the surface of Mars in Arcadia Planitia (181 deg W, 37 deg N)

Serguei M. Pershin; Valery Pungin

doi:10.1117/12.454751

5 February 2002 Water on Mars: anomaly of a water index (1042/953) on the surface of Mars in Arcadia Planitia (181 deg W, 37 deg N)

Serguei M. Pershin, Valery Pungin

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4495, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology IV; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454751
Event: International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, 2001, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

The new approach to search of traces of water on a surface of Mars is suggested based on variation of a water index obtained from the ratio of the images in close spectral ranges outside of and inside a band (940-980 nm) of absorption of water in vicinity of obertone of valence H-O vibrations, which previously was used for estimation of amount of water in leaves of terrestrial plants. It is revealed anomalously large (up to 1.2) value of water index in the region of a dark spot (181W37N) in Arcadia Platinia by the analysis of the ratio of the image of Mars at wavelengths 1042 and 953 nm, obtained with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. The observed anomaly, which corresponds to almost 100 % contents of water in leaves on the Earth, is interpreted as result of the increased humidity of a surface or presence of a layer of liquid/bound water in this area of Mars resulting in reduction of efficiency of scattering of solar light with wavelength 953 nm due to increase of absorption in a band of obertone of vibrations of molecules of water.

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Serguei M. Pershin and Valery Pungin "Water on Mars: anomaly of a water index (1042/953) on the surface of Mars in Arcadia Planitia (181 deg W, 37 deg N)", Proc. SPIE 4495, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology IV, (5 February 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454751

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