Martian dust mantling and surface composition - Interpretation of thermophysical properties

The goal of the study presented here is to use the diurnal variation of the differences in the brightness temperatures between each of the four surface-sensing IRTM (infrared thermal mapper) wavelength bands to separate the average grain size determined by the thermal inertia into the surface block population and the inertia of the fine component. It is noted that the thermal emissivity of the surface can also be determined and that this in turn can be used to estimate compositional variations. What is more, the atmospheric dust content can be estimated and used to infer sources and sinks of airborne dust. Owing to the number of unknowns, observations at more than one time of day are necessary to determine each of these parameters independently. The data discussed here were obtained by the IRTM, which had five thermal channels centered at 7, 9, 11, 15, and 20 microns and one channel that measured solar reflectance for from 0.3 to 3.0 microns.