43 research outputs found
An Extremely Elongated Cloud over Arsia Mons Volcano on Mars: I. Life Cycle
We report a previously unnoticed annually repeating phenomenon consisting of
the daily formation of an extremely elongated cloud extending as far as 1800 km
westward from Arsia Mons. It takes place in the Solar Longitude (Ls) range of
~220-320, around the Southern solstice. We study this Arsia Mons Elongated
Cloud (AMEC) using images from different orbiters, including ESA Mars Express,
NASA MAVEN, Viking 2, MRO, and ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). We study the
AMEC in detail in Martian Year (MY) 34 in terms of Local Time and Ls and find
that it exhibits a very rapid daily cycle: the cloud growth starts before
sunrise on the western slope of the volcano, followed by a westward expansion
that lasts 2.5 hours with a velocity of around 170 m/s in the mesosphere (~45
km over the areoid). The cloud formation then ceases, it detaches from its
formation point, and continues moving westward until it evaporates before the
afternoon, when most sun-synchronous orbiters observe. Moreover we
comparatively study observations from different years (i.e. MYs 29-34) in
search of interannual variations and find that in MY33 the cloud exhibits lower
activity, whilst in MY34 the beginning of its formation was delayed compared to
other years, most likely due to the Global Dust Storm. This phenomenon takes
place in a season known for the general lack of clouds on Mars. In this paper
we focus on observations, and a theoretical interpretation will be the subject
of a separate paper
Dynamics of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars Arsia Mons volcano
Starting in September 2018, a daily repeating extremely elongated cloud was observed extending
from the Mars Arsia Mons volcano. We study this Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) using
images from VMC, HRSC, and OMEGA on board Mars Express, IUVS on MAVEN, and MARCI on
MRO. We study the daily cycle of this cloud, showing how the morphology and other parameters
of the cloud evolved with local time. The cloud expands every morning from the western slope of
the volcano, at a westward velocity of around 150m/s, and an altitude of around 30-40km over the
local surface. Starting around 2.5 hours after sunrise (8.2 Local True Solar Time, LTST), the
formation of the cloud resumes, and the existing cloud keeps moving westward, so it detaches
from the volcano, until it evaporates in the following hours. At this time, the cloud has expanded
to a length of around 1500km. Short time later, a new local cloud appears on the western slope of
the volcano, starting around 9.5 LTST, and grows during the morning.
This daily cycle repeated regularly for at least 90 sols in 2018, around Southern Solstice (Ls
240-300) in Martian Year (MY) 34. According with these and previous MEx/VMC observations, this
elongated cloud is a seasonal phenomenon occurring around Southern Solstice every Martian
Year. We study the interannual variability of this cloud, the influence of the Global Dust Storms in
2018 on the cloud’s properties (Sánchez-Lavega et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 46, 2019), and its validity
as a proxy for the global state of the Martian atmosphere (Sánchez-Lavega et al., J. Geophys. Res.,
123, 3020, 2018). We discuss the physical mechanisms behind the formation of this peculiar cloud
in Mars
Dynamics of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars Arsia Mons volcano
Starting in September 2018, a daily repeating extremely elongated cloud was observed
extending up to 1800km from the Mars Arsia Mons volcano. We study this Arsia Mons
Elongated Cloud (AMEC) using images from VMC, HRSC, and OMEGA on board Mars
Express, IUVS on MAVEN, MCC on Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), MARCI on MRO,
and Visible Camera on Viking 2 orbiter. We study the daily cycle of this cloud, showing
how the morphology and other parameters of the cloud evolved rapidly with local time.
The cloud expands every morning from the western slope of the volcano, at a westward
velocity of around 160m/s, and an altitude of around 45km over martian areoid. The
expansion starts with sunrise, and resumes around 2.5 hours later, when cloud formationresumes and the elongated tail detaches from the volcano and keeps moving westward
until it evaporates before afternoon, when most sun-synchronous missions observe. This
daily cycle repeated regularly for at least 80 sols in 2018 (Martian Year 34). We find in
images from past years that this AMEC is an annually repeating phenomenon that takes
place around the Solar Longitude range 220Âş-320Âş. We study the AMEC in Martian Year
34 in terms of Local Time and Solar Longitude, and then compare with observations from
previous years, in search for interannual variations, taking into account the possible
influence of the recent Global Dust Storm
A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the mostpressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenontime-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the availableparameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), whilefeaturing extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates.These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decayand through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-baseddetector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantlyadvance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, andcosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector.<br
A next-generation liquid xenon observatory for dark matter and neutrino physics
The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the most pressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the available parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles, while featuring extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates. These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decay and through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-based detector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantly advance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, and cosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector