O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> O-> . --. THE INTERNATIONAL MARS WATCH ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER . ..../ | -------------------------------------------------- :::::: :::::: Volume 1; Issue 4 (file imw.sep94) :::: 23 September 1994 <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O <-O SUBJECT Line Number ------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Introductory remarks 22 Special Announcements 35 Observing deadlines and facility instrument status 66 Observing plans 76 Recent Results 100 Ephemerides and/or Satellite Orbital Elements 111 Recent Publications and Meetings 123 ************************************************************************ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ************************************************************************ Planning continues for the upcoming Mars opposition, and for all intents and purposes the observing season has begun. Mars is now 5.7 arcsec in apparent diameter, at a distance of 1.6 AU from Earth. This issue of the newsletter presents some more information on observing efforts that are underway. As your plans get finalized, please consider sending in a note describing your group's efforts and what, if any, corresponding observations by others would be beneficial to your project. ************************************************************************ SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ************************************************************************ DPS Mars Observing Workshop: A special short (1-hour) meeting of researchers planning to conduct observations of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos during the 1994-1995 apparition is planned for the 1994 DPS conference in Washington DC. The meeting will occur on Wednesday Nov. 2 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm in a DPS meeting room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The goal of this informal workshop is to coordinate observations among different groups observing Mars during this apparition. In particular, we would like to try to arrange for near-simultaneous observations by groundbased and/or HST observers across the visible, near-IR, mid-IR, and microwave. Observers should come prepared to give a short (5 min.) synopsis of their plans using overheads and/or slides if they like. ------ Call for observations of Mars Pathfinder Landing Site: For those of you who haven't heard, the landing site for the 1997 NASA Mars Pathfinder mission has been chosen. It is in the Ares Valles/ Tiu Valles region near latitude 19.5 north, longitude 32.8 west. At present, the exact landing site cannot be defined to better than a few hundred km accuracy. Team members are extremely interested in coordinated observations of this site at the best possible spatial resolution so that they can know as much as possible about this region before the mission. Examples of pertinent observations would include surface mineralogy measurements, and time variations of atmospheric dust, water, and/or ice clouds in this region. ************************************************************************ OBSERVING DEADLINES AND FACILITY INSTRUMENT STATUS ************************************************************************ Observatory Deadline Telescope and Time Period ----------- ----------- -------------------------------------------- Mauna Kea Sept. 30 U. Hawaii 2.2m and 0.6m, for Dec 94-Mar 95 Oct. 1 NASA/IRTF, for Feb-Jul 1995 McDonald Oct. 1 2.7m, 2.1m, 0.9m, 0.8m for Dec 94 to Mar 95 ************************************************************************ OBSERVING PLANS ************************************************************************ From: Jeff Beish <72317.3306@CompuServe.COM> Jeff says he will have begun visual observing Mars by the last week of June. Too many low clouds hung over east coast near sunrise to see Mars as of May. Hubble Space Telescope Observing Plans: Two groups will be observing Mars with the HST this apparition. The first group is led by Phil James and will concentrate their efforts on monitoring of surface and atmospheric variability over as much of the Mars seasonal cycle as possible. Because Mars is now more than 50 degrees from the Sun, observations are already underway. The second group is led by Dave Crisp and will concentrate their efforts on high spatial resolution observations of surface mineralogy and atmospheric composition at opposition in February. Observing dates for HST Mars image sequences are: 1994: 8/23,9/20,10/20,11/20 1995: 1/03,2/12,3/24,4/27 All observations use F255W, F336W, F410M, F502N, and F673N filters, plus additional LVF wavelengths chosen at diagnostic mineral bands. A few additional dates around closest approach are still TBD. ************************************************************************ RECENT RESULTS ************************************************************************ From: moersch@astrosun.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Jeffrey E. Moersch) Jeff Moersch reports that despite some interesting telescope problems at the 200", the Cornell group obtained a small set of 7.9 to 12.5 micron images of Mars this summer using the SpectroCam-10 instrument. Initial calibrations and analyses are proceeding... ************************************************************************ EPHEMERIDES AND/OR SATELLITE ORBITAL ELEMENTS ************************************************************************ From: Jim Bell (jimbo@anarchy.arc.nasa.gov) Can anyone recommend a good "popular"-level ephemeris program that can either tabulate or show me graphically the offsets of Phobos and Deimos from Mars? Optimally, I'd like to be able to make some of those "DNA plots" like you see for the Jovian and Saturnian satellites. Doing it by hand from the Almanac involves typing in tables of numbers into a homemade program, and the MICA program does not include data on satellites. ************************************************************************ RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND MEETINGS ************************************************************************ Recent Mars-related papers published: JGR-PLANETS: "Sinuosity of Martian Rampart Ejecta Deposits", N.G. Barlow, JGR, 99, 10927-10936. "A Non-local Thermodynamic Equilibrium Radiative Transfer Model for Infrared Emissions in the Atmosphere of Mars, 1, Theoretical Basis and Nighttime Populations of Vibrational Levels", M.A. Lopez-Valverde and M. Lopez-Puertas, JGR, 99, 13093-13116. "A Non-local Thermodynamic Equilibrium Radiative Transfer Model for Infrared Emissions in the Atmosphere of Mars, 2, Daytime Populations of Vibrational Levels", M.A. Lopez-Valverde and M. Lopez-Puertas, JGR, 99, 13117-13132. "Stability of the Martian Atmosphere--Is Heterogeneous Catalysis Essential?", S.K. Atreya and Z. Gu, JGR, 99, 13133-13146. (available by sending reprint request to Sushil.K.Atreya@um.cc.umich.edu) "Hydrous Carbonates on Mars? Evidence from Mariner 6/7 Infrared Spectrometer and Groundbased Telescopic Spectra", W.M. Calvin et al., JGR, 99, 14659-14676. ICARUS: "Monitoring Mars with the Hubble Space Telescope: 1990-1991 Observations", P.B. James et al., Icarus, 109, 79-101. "A Model for the Evolution of CO2 on Mars", R.M. Haberle et al., Icarus, 109, 102-120. "First Measurement of Helium on Mars: Implications for the Problem of Radiogenic Gases on the Terrestrial Planets", V.A. Krasnopolsky et al., Icarus, 109, 337-351. "Evidence, Age, and Thickness of a Frozen Paleolake in Utopia Planitia, Mars", M.G. Chapman, Icarus, 109, 393-406. OTHER: "Photochemistry and Stability of the Atmosphere of Mars", S.K.Atreya and Z. Gu, Adv. Space Res., 1995 (in press), paper presented at COSPAR Meeting, Hamburg, Germany, July, 1994. (paper available by sending reprint request to Sushil.K.Atreya@um.cc.umich.edu) ************************************************************************ Editor: Jim Bell NASA Ames Research Center Space Science Division, M/S 245-3 Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 USA phone: 415-604-0324 fax: 415-604-6779 email: jimbo@anarchy.arc.nasa.gov ---------------------------END--------------------------------------