EARTH GLOBAL MOSAIC OBSERVATIONS WITH NIMS-GALILEO

Citation
P. Drossart et al., EARTH GLOBAL MOSAIC OBSERVATIONS WITH NIMS-GALILEO, Planetary and space science, 41(7), 1993, pp. 551-561
Citations number
15
Categorie Soggetti
Geosciences, Interdisciplinary
Journal title
ISSN journal
00320633
Volume
41
Issue
7
Year of publication
1993
Pages
551 - 561
Database
ISI
SICI code
0032-0633(1993)41:7<551:EGMOWN>2.0.ZU;2-R
Abstract
During the Earth-1 Galileo flyby (December 1990), the Near-Infrared Ma pping Spectrometer (NIMS) experiment investigated the illuminated side of the Earth in the spectral range 0.7-5.2 mu m. Mosaics of the entir e terrestrial globe were recorded with a spatial resolution ranging fr om 100 to 500 km. From these spectra, information is retrieved upon th e large-scale temperature structure in the stratosphere and in the mes osphere (0-70 km altitude range) from the inversion of the CO2 bands a t 4.3 and 4.8 mu m. These data also permit monitoring of the cloud tem peratures, and derivation of the abundances of several minor atmospher ic constituents (H2O, CO, N2O, CH4 and O-3). These observations consti tute a continuation of the study of the atmospheres of the three plane ts (i.e. Venus, the Earth and Jupiter) targeted by the Galileo spacecr aft during its mission. Observing these atmospheres with the NIMS inst rument in the near-infrared will provide a unique data set, useful for comparative planetary studies.