Projects: Mars Climate Sounder Team Website
Images and Data from Mars
October 25, 2011
MCS has spotted clouds predicted by theory but never before observed on Mars.
September 29, 2010
What will the Martian atmosphere be like when the next Mars rover descends through
it for landing in August of 2012?
Tracing
the Big Picture of Mars' Atmosphere
August 26, 2010
A successor to Mars Climate Sounder will fly aboard the joint NASA-ESA ExoMars
Trace Gas Orbiter, set to launch in 2016. It will provide daily maps of global,
pole-to-pole, vertical distributions of the temperature, dust, water vapor
and ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere.
Observing the Martian Atmosphere for Two Mars Years
July 13, 2010
June 29, 2010 was the second Martian anniversary of the start of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS)
observations at Mars. Much like it is on Earth, it is again early northern
summer on Mars, shortly past the northern solstice. When powered
on, MCS produces a continuous stream of soundings, one every 2
seconds. During these two Mars
years, MCS has returned just over 50 million soundings.
Mars Climate Sounder Gives First Warning
of a Major "Dust
Event"
March 31, 2009
News flash: In the past few days, Mars Climate Sounder has
detected elevated temperatures in its data on Mars' atmosphere. The elevated
temperatures are very likely the first warning of a significant dust event, one
that may have already encircled the planet.
Instrument Status Update
March 22, 2008
Mars Climate Sounder has been observing the Martian atmosphere for one and
a third Mars years and has collected 794 days of scientifically useful data.
This includes almost 36 million individual soundings at Mars. Over the last
nine months, we have been seeing the same Martian seasons as were observed
during the start of the mission, providing interesting observations of interannual
variability.
Mars Climate Sounder Collects 20 Millionth
Sounding
March 10, 2008
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft this month is set to surpass the
record for the most science data returned by any Mars spacecraft. While the
mission continues to produce data at record levels, engineers are examining
why two instruments are intermittently not performing entirely as planned.
Placing Mars Climate Sounder's scans into context at Mars
Update July 2, 2007
Data acquired October 1, 2006 and February 10, 2007
These two movies show how and where Mars Climate Sounder acquires its
data on the atmosphere of Mars. Because Mars turns
beneath the moving orbiter, each scan is taken while flying over a different
part of the planet. Two different movies show how Mars Climate Sounder's
scans have been affected by the adoption of a "limb staring" mode,
which allows the instrument to continue to take data as the problem with
its elevation actuator is still being worked on.
Millions of soundings yield clues to Mars' weather, but instrument errors
force team to pause operations
Update April 3, 2007
Data acquired October 6, 2006
Two months after the start of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's primary science
phase, the Mars Climate Sounder instrument has already acquired more than
four million soundings, building toward a vast data set on the three-dimensional
structure of Mars' atmosphere over the full Martian year of the orbiter's
nominal mission. However, an intermittent error has caused normal operations
of the instrument to be suspended.
Spacecraft Set to Reach Milestone, Reports Technical Glitches
February 7, 2007
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft this month is set to surpass the
record for the most science data returned by any Mars spacecraft. While the
mission continues to produce data at record levels, engineers are examining
why two instruments are intermittently not performing entirely as planned.
Mars Climate Sounder Captures Views of Other Instruments
Data acquired March 24-25, 2006
A unique view of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's instrument deck against the
blackness of space from Mars Climate Sounder.
First Views of Mars
Data acquired March 24, 2006
The data for these images were captured just
two weeks after Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived in Mars orbit. The
spacecraft was 150 times farther from Mars than it would be in its nominal
science orbit, allowing Mars Climate Sounder to cover the whole globe of
Mars in four scans.
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