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    Stringent upper limit of CH4 on Mars based on SOFIA/EXES observations

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    Authors
    Aoki, S.
    Richter, M.J.
    DeWitt, C.
    Boogert, A.
    Encrenaz, T.
    Sagawa, H.
    Nakagawa, H.
    Vandaele, A.C.
    Giuranna, M.
    Greathouse, T.K.
    Fouchet, T.
    Geminale, A.
    Sindoni, G.
    McKelvey, M.
    Case, M.
    Kasaba, Y.
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    Discipline
    Physical sciences
    Audience
    Scientific
    Date
    2018
    Metadata
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    Description
    Discovery of CH4 in the Martian atmosphere has led to much discussion since it could be a signature of biological and/or geological activities on Mars. However, the presence of CH4 and its temporal and spatial variations are still under discussion because of the large uncertainties embedded in the previous observations. We performed sensitive measurements of Martian CH4 by using the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES) onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) on 16 March 2016, which corresponds to summer (Ls = 123.2∘) in the northern hemisphere on Mars. The high altitude of SOFIA (~13.7 km) enables us to significantly reduce the effects of terrestrial atmosphere. Thanks to this, SOFIA/EXES improves our chances of detecting Martian CH4 lines because it reduces the impact of telluric CH4 on Martian CH4, and allows us to use CH4 lines in the 7.5 μm band which has less contamination. However, our results show no unambiguous detection of Martian CH4. The Martian disk was spatially resolved into 3 × 3 areas, and the upper limits on the CH4 volume mixing ratio range from 1 to 9 ppb across the Martian atmosphere, which is significantly less than detections in several other studies. These results emphasize that release of CH4 on Mars is sporadic and/or localized if the process is present.
    Citation
    Aoki, S.; Richter, M.J.; DeWitt, C.; Boogert, A.; Encrenaz, T.; Sagawa, H.; Nakagawa, H.; Vandaele, A.C.; Giuranna, M.; Greathouse, T.K.; Fouchet, T.; Geminale, A.; Sindoni, G.; McKelvey, M.; Case, M.; Kasaba, Y. (2018). Stringent upper limit of CH4 on Mars based on SOFIA/EXES observations. , Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 610, A78, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201730903.
    Identifiers
    uri: https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/6849
    doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201730903
    Type
    Article
    Peer-Review
    Yes
    Language
    eng
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