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    Water Vapor Vertical Distribution on Mars After Six Years of TGO/NOMAD Solar Occultations: 2. Cross-Validation Within TGO and Comparison With MPCM

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    Authors
    Brines, A.
    López-Valverde, M.A.
    González-Galindo, F.
    Aoki, S.
    Fedorova, A.
    Belyaev, D.
    Forget, F.
    Vos, E.
    Montmessin, F.
    Funke, B.
    Lopez-Moreno, J.J.
    Rodriguez-Gomez, J.
    Daerden, F.
    Thomas, I.R.
    Trompet, L.
    Modak, A.
    Villanueva, G.L.
    Patel, M.R.
    Bellucci, G.
    Vandaele, A.C.
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    Discipline
    Physical sciences
    Subject
    planetary atmospheres
    Mars
    water vapor
    ExoMars
    TGO
    NOMAD
    Audience
    Scientific
    Date
    2026
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Description
    This is the second part of an investigation of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere using solar occultation observations by the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) spectrometer on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Following the analysis of six Earth years of NOMAD observations performed in the first part, a cross-validation between NOMAD and ACS results is presented, showing global as well as profile-by-profile comparisons. The results reveal an overall good agreement between different teams and instruments, taking into account the different retrieval methodologies. In order to compare with model predictions, we perform an exhaustive analysis of the water vapor simulated by Mars Planetary Climate Model (MPCM). It shows that the MPCM reproduces most of the water vapor climatological features observed in the atmosphere. However, several discrepancies between model and observations are noticed. Some of these are possibly related to the vertical distribution of dust and its effect on the global circulation and on the water vapor vertical transport. Other data-model differences found at 60 km seem to be related to discrepancies on the water ice cloud formation in the MPCM. We include a cluster analysis of Martian water vapor vertical profiles for the first time. This technique applied to MPCM and NOMAD water vapor retrievals reveal distinct groups of profiles being representative of specific seasons and latitudinal regions, similarly distributed in both model and observations. Moreover, it allows us to provide a simplified water vapor climatology, useful to detect out-of-season events and biases in the retrieval processes.
    Citation
    Brines, A.; López-Valverde, M.A.; González-Galindo, F.; Aoki, S.; Fedorova, A.; Belyaev, D.; Forget, F.; Vos, E.; Montmessin, F.; Funke, B.; Lopez-Moreno, J.J.; Rodriguez-Gomez, J.; Daerden, F.; Thomas, I.R.; Trompet, L.; Modak, A.; Villanueva, G.L.; Patel, M.R.; Bellucci, G.; Vandaele, A.C. (2026). Water Vapor Vertical Distribution on Mars After Six Years of TGO/NOMAD Solar Occultations: 2. Cross-Validation Within TGO and Comparison With MPCM. , Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol. 131, Issue 2, e2025JE009191, DOI: 10.1029/2025JE009191.
    Identifiers
    uri: https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14595
    doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025JE009191
    url:
    Type
    Article
    Peer-Review
    Yes
    Language
    eng
    Links
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