Mars from the eyes of NASA’s Curiosity Rover – Recently released Mars surface images and new findings

Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Curiosity rover is part of Mars Exploration Program. Packed with the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific exploration of mars, its mission was to assess the planet’s environment for “habitability”. Reaching the red planet on August 5, 2012, NASA’s curiosity rover will shortly complete its 10 year on Martian soil.

Curiosity rover was designed to collect soil samples from surface and rock drills on Martian land. Additionally, Its purpose was to analyze the formation, structure, and chemical composition of the rocks as well as to examine the local geologic setting to detect chemical building blocks of life on Mars and reconstruct the Martian environment in past.

Recently, NASA has released some images of Mars surface clicked by the Mast camera or the Mastcam on-board the curiosity rover. The images have revealed some interesting findings about our neighboring red planet.

Here, we share some interesting images released by NASA from Curiosity rover, Mars.

Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Flaky, Streambed Rocks formed in an ancient stream-bed or small pond.



Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Finger-Like Rocks likely formed as groundwater trickled through rock in the ancient past, depositing mineral cements over time. Later, the softer rock was eroded by wind around the cemented portions. The rocks were found on Mount Sharp.



Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sulfate-Bearing Region in the middle of the image. Layers or stripes can be seen across the mountainside. These layers represent an excellent record of how Mars’ water and climate changed over time. 

Image credit -NASA/JPL-Caltech/York University

Drifting high Clouds on the Martian sky. NASA scientists believe that these clouds are very high and cold suggesting presence of carbon dioxide ice. Martian clouds are also faintly visible in the atmosphere and special imaging techniques has been used to detect them.

Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Spectacular Picture Postcard from Curiosity's Navcam. This panoramic view of Mars, artistically recreated by color addition is both gorgeous and informative. Rounded hills at center –right; a field of sand ripples “Sands of Forvie”; craggy “Rafael Navarro Mountain”, all these features show intriguing changes in the martian landscape over time.

Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sedimentary structure of a Martian Lake-bed shows typical pattern of a lake-floor sedimentary deposit in ancient past.



Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Martian rock slab known as "Old Soaker" shows a network of cracks. Scientists presume that it may have formed from the drying of a mud layer more than 3 billion years ago.

These stunning images together with the data samples analyzed by NASA scientist also reveal presence of organic carbon in the Martian soil. Organic carbon is the same type of carbon associated with biological processes on Earth. Scientists believe that though our neighboring planet is inhospitable now but billion years ago it has a thicker atmosphere and liquid water in streams and seas. Scientists are trying to understand and reconstruct the past climate and life on planet Mars with the vast amount of data available from the Curiosity rover and other such missions.

For more about Curiosity rover, visit http://mars.nasa.gov/msl or https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html.

Reference - 

NASA's Curiosity Takes Inventory of Key Life Ingredient on Mars, Available at - https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9113/nasas-curiosity-rover-measures-intriguing-carbon-signature-on-mars/ 

NASA's Curiosity Rover Measures Intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars. Available at - https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9113/nasas-curiosity-rover-measures-intriguing-carbon-signature-on-mars/

NASA's Curiosity Captures Stunning Views of a Changing Mars Landscape. Available at - https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9209/nasas-curiosity-captures-stunning-views-of-a-changing-mars-landscape/

 

 

Understanding Insolation Through CERES Data

 

Insolation or the Incoming Solar Radiations is the main source of energy on the Earth’s Surface. The same energy is responsible for all the climatic phenomenon on the earth’s surface. It is also accountable for all the life on earth’s surface. Although, there is another fact that all the solar energy coming to the Earth’s surface is not utilized. Some of it is reflected back to space, some is absorbed by the atmosphere and some of it is absorbed by earth’s surface. There is a balance in the amount of energy reflected and absorbed which is known as the Earth-atmosphere energy balance or energy budget. To understand more about Earth’s energy budget, watch this video here.

Another important aspect about insolation is its distribution on the Earth’s surface. Due to earth’s shape, its axis tilt and rotation, all the regions doesn’t receive same amount of energy or insolation. This is the reasons for different types of climate in different regions of the world and changing seasons on Earth. We will discuss this in detail using CERES satellite imagery. 

CERES or the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System is NASA’s project which provide direct measurements of solar radiation. It has been installed on many important satellites as Terra, Aqua and NOAA-20 to get Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) data at hourly, daily and monthly intervals at spatial coverage of 20 km to global level. The CERES data are used by the climate, weather and applied science researchers to address a range of researches related to   energy exchanges between the Earth and space. For more detail about CERES data, click here. The CERES data has been downloaded from here.

The satellite images used here are prepared by the FLASHFlux team, NASA Langley Research Center. FLASHFlux data are produced using CERES observations convolved with MODIS measurements from both the Terra and Aqua satellite. These colored images shows the amount of sunlight (in Watts per square meter). Light shaded areas receive more sunlight and the darkest colors show very less insolation.  

Colour Key of satellite image (From NEO Website - https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=CERES_INSOL_M)

Vernal Equinox (March 21^st ) – On march 21^st, the sun’s rays are directly on the equator. This is also visible from the CERES image. The brightest region is the region between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Maximum insolation is concentrated in this region. The region from the tropics to poles, shows the dark shades, where less amount of insolation is received.

In the CERES image, we can also observe the balance in the insolation received in the tropical and polar regions in both hemispheres. If we don’t consider the difference between the land and water areas, the regions beyond the tropics, in the northern and the southern hemispheres, show similar intensity of insolation. In the tropics of the northern and the southern hemispheres also, similar intensity is there. You will see later on that this is not true in the solstice. During vernal equinox, the days and night are of equal length in all parts of the world.

 

Diagram and CERES satellite imagery of Vernal Equinox

Summer Solstice (June 21^st ) – The revolving Earth around the sun in an elliptical orbit, moves to another position at summer solstice. Due to the tilt of the Earth, the distribution of insolation at this position is changed. Now, on June 21^st, the sun’s rays are directly above the tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere. The brightest region in CERES image i.e. the region north of tropic of Capricorn, receives the maximum insolation. While the least insolation is received in the regions south of tropic of Capricorn. Due to this unequal distribution of insolation, different seasons are experienced in northern and southern hemisphere. The different season are characterized by unequal length of day and night. As the insolation is focused on northern hemisphere, days are longer than nights. Vice versa happens in south of equator. The north of equator is summer whereas the south of equator experience winter at this time of the year. 

Diagram and CERES satellite imagery of Summer Solstice

 Autumnal Equinox (September 23^rd ) – Earth moves to another equinox position on 23^rd September. As it was in Vernal Equinox, the insolation is concentrated in between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn. The regions beyond the tropics receive comparably less insolation, as visible in the CERES image. Likewise, the insolation intensity in northern and the southern hemispheres, roughly copies each other. Equal length of days and night are experienced on Autumnal Equinox.

Diagram and CERES satellite imagery of Autumnal Equinox

 Winter Solstice (December 21^st ) – On Winter Solstice, sun is directly above Tropic of Capricorn in South hemisphere. In the CERES image too, we can see the brightest region being the region beyond tropic of Capricorn. This region receives maximum insolation. As discussed earlier, due to unequal distribution of insolation, there is winters in the northern hemisphere and summers in the southern hemisphere. Now reverse happens, as compared to the summer solstice. There is more sunlight or insolation in south of equator, so the days are longer and nights are shorter. Vice versa happens in the Northern hemisphere.

Diagram and CERES satellite imagery of Winter Solstice

The CERES data clearly shows the amount of insolation received and shift in the incoming solar radiation seasonally. The transition of solar energy shifts can be visualized more clearly by observing the month wise imagery available on NASA’s NEO (NASA Earth Observation) website at link https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=CERES_INSOL_M. To know more about CERES data, click here.

 

Reference - 

NASA (n.d.). Home Page. What is CERES? Website link - https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/

Satellite imagery produced by the NASA Earth Observations team based on FLASHFlux data. Data provided by the FLASHFlux team, NASA Langley Research Center.

NASA NEO Website (n.d.). Solar Insolation (1 Month) CERES data. Website link -- https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=CERES_INSOL_M).