Thermal and physical modeling of planetary surfaces

Minimal burial depth of stable ice deposits for a region in Isidis Planitia, Mars - Result of BMST calculations Copyright: Dr. Jörn Helbert

The remote sensing methods used in planetary expolartion have made significant progess during recent years. This is especially true for imaging infrared spectroscopy and Fourier spectroscopy with a very high spectral resolution. These methods yield a vast amount of information about planetary surfaces and atmospheres and even more is coming on future missions.

But remote sensing has its limitations. For example we know parts of the surface of Mars in greater details than the Earth surface, but we know almost nothing about the soil just a few centimeter below the surface. This is where the modeling of the thermal and physical behavior of a planetary surface comes into the game. Dataset from various sources, including remote sensing, in-situ measurements, ground-based observations , and laboratory measurements are combined to create models for the behavior of planetary surfaces. Based on these models it is possible to study for example the mineralogy of Mercury's surface(MERTIS auf Bepi-Colombo), the topography and structure of the surface of Venus (VIRTIS on Venus Express), or the stability of ground ice on Mars (BMST).

On of the main activities of the group is the ongoing developement of Berlin Mars near Surface Thermal model (BMST). This model allows to study the thermal behavior of the Martian surface and can be used to study the stability of near surface ice deposits. Currently the model is used for the interpretation of data from the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on Mars Express. The development of the model was funded by the German Research Council (DFG) within the focus program "Mars and the terrestrial planets".