In a significant development in Indian space odyssey, the ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan has successfully viewed the albedo of Mars that will be useful to study its surface properties. A Facebook page update of the Bengaluru-based Indian premiere space agency Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO’s Mars Mission payload has scanned the albedo of Mars that will be useful to study its surface properties.
ISRO said “The map presented here shows the surface reflectance of Mars as viewed at 1.65 micron from the reference channel of MSM (Methane Sensor for Mars payload) till December 16, 2014”.
“In the map, the blue colour indicates low albedo features and the red shows high albedo features on the Martian surface,” ISRO said on its Facebook page.
It said, “The map resolution is 0.5degreesx0.5degrees in latitude-longitude. By correcting the data for CO2 absorption, a major part of atmospheric effects is taken care of.”
It said, “Reflected solar radiation from Mars is a diagnostic signal of the planet which provides lot of information about the planet’s surface as well as its atmosphere.”
This data, along with the reflectance measured by Mars Colour Camera, will be useful to study the surface properties of Mars, a post by ISRO, along with a map representing the surface reflectance of Mars, It added.
The classical albedo features of Mars are the light and dark features that can be seen on the Mars through an Earth-based telescope. Before the age of space probes, several astronomers created maps of Mars on which they gave names to the features they could see. The most popular system of nomenclature was devised by Giovanni Schiaparelli, who used names from classical antiquity. Today, the improved understanding of Mars enabled by space probes has rendered many of the classical names obsolete for the purposes of cartography; however, some of the old names are still used to describe geographical features on the planet. In short Albedo is the fraction of solar energy reflected from planetary surface back into space.
The Mars Orbiter launched on November 5 in 2013 onboard ISRO’s PSlV C25 from Sriharikota entered the Martian orbit on September 2014 after a nine-month long odyssey, making India the first country in the world to succeed in such an inter-planetary mission in the maiden attempt itself.
It is equipped with five instruments, including a sensor to track methane or marsh gas, a colour camera and a thermal imaging spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the red planet.
ISRO said Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) payload on board MOM intends to detect the presence of methane and measure the column density of the same.