The Martian atmosphere - Mariner 9 television experiment progress report.

Atmospheric phenomena appearing in the Mariner 9 television pictures are discussed in detail. The surface of the planet was heavily obscured by a global dust storm during the first month in orbit. Brightness data during this period can be fitted by a semi-infinite scattering and absorbing atmosphere model with a single-scattering albedo in the range 0.70-0.85. This low value suggests that the mean radius of the particles responsible for the obscuration was at least 10 microns. By the end of the second month, this dust storm had largely dissipated, leaving a residual optical depth of about 0.1. Much of the region north of 45 deg N was covered by variable clouds comprising the north polar hood.