Albedo control of seasonal south polar cap recession on Mars

Frédéric Schmidt (1) , Sylvain Douté (1) , Bernard Schmitt (1) , Mathieu Vincendon (2) , Jean-Pierre Bibring (2) , Yves Lanvevin , The Omega Team

1 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble
2 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale

Over the last few decades, General Circulation Models (GCM) have been used to simulate the current Martian climate. The calibration of these GCMs with the current seasonal cycle is a crucial step in understanding the climate history of Mars. One of the main climatic signals currently used to validate GCMs is the annual atmospheric pressure cycle.

Keywords: Mars; Ice; Spectroscopy; polar cap; climate

Domains: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Frédéric Schmidt, Sylvain Douté, Bernard Schmitt, Mathieu Vincendon, Jean-Pierre Bibring, et al.. Albedo control of seasonal south polar cap recession on Mars. Icarus, 2009, 200 (2), pp.374. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2008.12.014⟩. ⟨hal-00517247⟩