More Details about the SCOOP Project

The thermal structure of an atmosphere is a result of the radiative and convective equilibrium driven by the incidence of solar radiation, which is scattered, absorbed or emitted by the atmosphere itself and the planet surface. The absorbed energy is then released as infrared radiation. The energy balance is influenced by the atmospheric composition and by the presence of clouds and aerosols and the thermal structure is a driver of the global circulation which in turn influences the atmospheric composition. Therefore, understanding Mars and Venus current climate requires a multidisciplinary approach.

SCOOP will therefore use a synergistic approach by combining different fields of research in aeronomy and integrating the different layers of the Mars and Venus atmospheres from the surface to the upper atmosphere. It will address major open science questions regarding the atmospheric system by seeking to comprehend the interactions between its various elements. SCOOP will also 1) prepare for ESA’s ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) data analysis and exploitation by developing tools to be tested on selected data from current missions and on the first returned data of TGO; and 2) deliver enhanced scientific context and datasets for defining and designing future missions to our neighbour terrestrial planets.

The Planetary Aeronomy group of IASB-BIRA is coordinating the project. The LPAP of the Université de Liège and ORB are also partners of SCOOP. The SCOOP network is built with an accent on close interaction and complementarity among expert teams as a goal in itself. Both the Planetary Aeronomy team and LPAP have a leading role in Belgium in remote sensing of planetary neutral atmospheres and both are strongly involved in collecting, processing, analyzing and modelling planetary atmospheric observations performed with spatial instruments. While they obviously converge towards common objectives, they complement each other in many aspects of their respective expertise: (1) the study of the mesosphere versus the thermosphere, (2) expertise in spectroscopy in the UV versus IR, (3) mastery of absorption versus emission spectroscopy, (4) a strong implication in missions to Mars, ExoMars 2016 TGO versus MAVEN.

The major scientific results expected are: 1) inputs for the revised Venus International Reference Atmosphere; 2) new retrieval tools in preparation for the analysis of the NOMAD data; 3) a better overall comprehension of the dynamics, structure and composition of terrestrial planets and the relationships between them; 4) additional means to define the strategy of observations for NOMAD, including clues for possible clathrates’ outgassing; and 5) tools to model atmospheric processes needed for the interpretation of the atmospheric parameters.

SCOOP Partners

Team @ IASB-BIRA (Coordinator): Valérie Wilquet, Ann Carine Vandaele, Séverine Robert and Arnaud Mahieux

Team @ ULg (Partner 2): Benoît Hubert, Jean)Claude Gérard, Arnaud Stiepen, Lauriane Soret

Team @ ORB-KBS (Partner 3): Özgür Karatekin and Élodie Gloesner

Team @ University of Arizona, U.S.A. (International Partner 1): Rodger V. Yelle

Team @ INASAN, Russian Academy of Sciences (International Partner 2): Dmitri Bisikalo and Valery I. Shematovich

All publications related to the project can be found here.

Observations of the Proton Aurora on Mars with SPICAM on Board Mars Express

21 Feb 2018 - Researchers from the Laboratoire de Physqiue Atmosphérique et Planétaire at Liège University, from the Royal Observatory of Belgium and from the Université de Versailles have just published the first observation of proton aurora on Mars.

B. Ritter, J.-C. Gérard, B. Hubert, L. Rodriguez, and F. Montmessin (2018). Observations of the Proton Aurora on Mars with SPICAM on board Mars Express, Geophysical Research Letters, 45. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076235.

Auroral observations superimposed on a Martian magnetic field intensity map. The white stars indicate the newly observed proton aurora observations, while the black stars show the locations of the discrete aurora.

SCOOP Workshop

26 June 2017 - During the SCOOP workshop, about 30 scientists in the field of Planetary Aeronomy exchanged their recent results on the Martian atmosphere from data of planetary missions and from modelling. They had as major prospects the extraction of information important for the
observation strategy of instruments such as NOMAD on board TGO (ESA) or IUVS on board MAVEN (NASA) and to link the upper atmosphere with the lower layers of the atmosphere through collaborations between the two missions.

Participants to the SCOOP Workshop coming from all over the world.

19 June 2017 - The Workshop "Mars, From the ground to the upper atmosphere" will be held @ IASB-BIRA from Wednesday 21 till Friday 23 June 2017. The meeting is intended to provide its participants a collaborative environment to exchange ideas and discuss them. Sessions will be dedicated to the following topics:

- Thermal structure and dynamics of the Martian atmosphere.

- Surface-atmosphere interaction and atmospheric chemical composition on Planet Mars.

Here is the full program:

Destination Mars, episode 1: Searching for signs of life

26 Jan 2016 - Jorge Vago, one of the Exomars Project Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA), outlined the mission: https://www.youtube.com/embed/VJA0wz1S9LY.

TGO is at Baikonour !

23 Dec. 2015 - The 3rd ExoMars flight containing the Trace Gas Orbiter TGO safely arrived in Baikonur this morning.

Discrete and diffuse aurorae in the Martian Atmosphere, November 2015

6 November 2015 - The Belgian newspaper Le Soir dedicated a full page to the planet Mars. Dr Arnaud Stiepen from the ULg was interviewed over the last discoveries by the Nasa probe Maven (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiting Mars since September 2014. For the first time, MAVEN surprinsingly detected diffuse aurorae in the Northern hemisphere of the planet Mars where a magnetic field is absent on the planet while it was thought it is an indispensable ingredient for the observation of aurorae. Both phenomena, discrete and diffuse auroraes on Mars, are detailed in Daily Science (in French).

5 November 2015 - A press release of the ESA (in English) placed the work by the team of Jean-Claude Gérard (LPAP, ULg) and the Mars Express mission in front. Armed with 10 years of MEX observations, they have detected discrete ultraviolet auroras in the Sourthern hemisphere on many occasions, and have analysed in detail how and where they are produced in the martian atmosphere. They concluded that the auroras appear only under special conditions, near the boundary between open and closed magnetic field lines (see Figure below). Unlike the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere of Mars has regions where the rocks have preserved the memory of a past magnetism. This residual magnetic field is called paleomagnetism. The ultraviolet auroras associated with known magnetic anomalies in Mars’ crust are confined, rare and transient events that vary in time and space. They are very different from the auroras seen on other planets.

Distribution map of discrete aurores (white circles) detected in the Southern hemisphere of Mars. The paleomagnetism appears on the background. © ULg, ESA.

Internal Meeting in Brussels, October 2015

12 October 2015 - The meeting of the SCOOP Project was held at IAB-BIRA in the brandnew Nicolet meeting room on the 23d of February. Each partners presented extensively their research in view of the first annual meeting with the follow-up committee to be held at BELSPO on December 1^st.

PSS Special Issue : "Exploration of Venus"

Sep. 2015 - Compiling the latest results from the Venus Express ESA mission, a special issue has been published in Planet. Space Sc. - IASB-BIRA researchers have been very active

Several papers with IASB-BIRA first authors were published in the PSS special issue on the "Exploration of Venus":

• Carbon monoxide short term variability observed on Venus with SOIR/VEX. Vandaele et al.
• Venus mesospheric sulfur dioxide measurement retrieved from SOIR on board Venus Express. Mahieux et al.
• Hydrogen Halides measurements in the Venus upper atmosphere retrieved from SOIR on board Venus Express. Mahieux et al.
• Update of the Venus high altitude temperature profiles measured by SOIR on board Venus Express. Mahieux et al.
• Rotational temperatures of Venus upper atmosphere as measured by SOIR on board Venus Express. Mahieux et al.

and several papers where IASB-BIRA researchers are co-authors:

• Thermal structure of Venus nightside upper atmosphere measured by stellar occultations with SPICAV/Venus Express. Piccialli et al.
• Upper Atmosphere Temperature Structure at the Venusian Terminators: A Comparison of SOIR and VTGCM Results. Bougher et al.
• Ground-based IR observation of oxygen isotope ratios in Venus's atmosphere. Iwagami et al.
• Distribution of Sulphuric Acid Aerosols in the Clouds and Upper Haze of Venus Using Venus Express VAST and VeRa Temperature Profiles. Parkinson et al.

Kick-off Meeting in Brussels, February 2015

23 February 2015 - The kick-off meeting of the SCOOP Project was held at IAB-BIRA in the brandnew Nicolet meeting room on the 23d of February. Representatives of each Belgian partner were present and presented briefly the last developments in their research that are relevant for the tasks in which they are involved.