Seasonal and interannual variability of solar radiation at Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity landing sites
- Alvaro Vicente-Retortillo
- Mark T. Lemmon
- Germán M. Martínez
- Francisco Valero
- Luis Vázquez
- Mª Luisa Martín
ISSN: 0214-4557
Year of publication: 2016
Issue: 28
Pages: 111-127
Type: Article
More publications in: Física de la tierra
Abstract
In this article we characterize the radiative environment at the landing sites of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) missions. We use opacity values obtained at the surface from direct imaging of the Sun and our radiative transfer model COMIMART to analyze the seasonal and interannual variability of the daily irradiation at the MER and MSL landing sites. In addition, we analyze the behavior of the direct and diffuse components of the solar radiation at these landing sites.