Retrievals of atmospheric temperature profiles (from the surface up to 50 km), surface temperatures, and dust and ice opacities during regional and global dust storms

The radiance observed by the PFS LongWavelength Channel LWC 2002000 cm1 depends on several parameters of the atmosphere and surface of Mars as described by radiative transfer theory the surface temperature and emissivity the column density of dust and water ice aerosols in the atmosphere the air temperatures as a function of altitude the surface pressure and the column density of water vapor and carbon monoxide Adopting the very general formalism of Bayesian analysis an algorithm for the scientific analysis of individual calibrated PFS measurements has been developed In our retrieval scheme the entire range 4001100 cm1 is used simultaneously for the selfconsistent retrieval of the following parameters state vector elements a surface temperature b air temperature profile in the indicative range 150 km c integrated silicate dust content d integrated water ice content A description of the adopted method can be found in Grassi et al 2005