Supporting information for the workshop:

Visible-Infrared Spectroscopy of Mars:
LABORATORY AND FIELD COMMUNITY DATA SETS


Information to support recommendations for terrestrial analog studies at the Dec 2002 workshop Visible-Infrared Spectroscopy of Mars: Laboratory and Field Community Data Sets. The workshop is open to all interested researchers. Submitted information will be added to this site.

There are two sections below:
1. Sites
2. Instrumentation


1. SITES SUBMITTED FOR DISCUSSION

Sites/information submitted by Nov. 8 will be added to the Dec discussion.
Contact information


Dry Deserts
1) Dry deserts, both hot and cold; probably some locations in the USA are within easy reach, but some other places such as the Dry Valleys in Antartica or selected locations in the Artics (I can probably give you more information later) should be taken into consideration; a possible alternative could be locations high in the mountains, but I am not too sure.
2) Field, a lot of field, changing geometry and spatial resolution, some airborne and satellite only if it is free; I wish grating or even Fourier field spectrometers existed, so wavelength range would not be a problem; in the present situation, I think that the choice of the wavelength range should be a careful compromise between fidelity and disturbances due to earth atmosphere; another important point is that the choice of a given spatial and spectral resolution must be balanced with the achievement of an acceptable S/N, otherwise collected data would loose much of their potential usefulness.

Meteor Crater, Arizona
2.) Due to the upcoming data from THEMIS and mini-TES, it is essential that Meteor Crater be examined under similar spatial and spectral resolution over the TIR wavelengths.
3.) The only public TIR data on Meteor Crater is that one could order ASTER data. Text files accompany the image(s) that give instructions on how to use the data.
4.) a. At Pitt's IVIS (http://ivis.eps.pitt.edu) Lab, we have ASTER VNIR and TIR data of Meteor Crater. ASTER has very similar spatial (90 m) and spectral resolutions to those of THEMIS (100 m). [Though I consider THEMIS to have "better" spectral resolution due to having nine bands at wavelengths that correspond to silicates, carbonates, sulfates, etc.]
b. ASU and Pitt have airborne TIMS data (much higher spatial resolution) to verify/validate the spaceborne ASTER data.
c. Laboratory radiance and emission data for field samples have been obtained.
d. Field spectrometer data of Meteor Crater was obtained this past July using the micro-FTIR. The radiance data has not been processed to date.
I just wanted to suggest a terrestrial analog site since Meteor Crater appears to be the best small, simple impact crater to study. While your previous study focused on the quartz and carbonate "layers" in the pre-impact stratigraphy and crater walls and my current work focuses on rim and ejecta blanket structure, I think we both agree that studying the crater would be beneficial to future VNIR and TIR studies of Mars. While only 160-170 terrestrial impact structures have been found, Nadine Barlow (UCF) records over 43,000 impact craters on Mars that are > 5 km.

Lunar Crater, Nevada
Data sets were measured of this site for a previous terrestrial analog program in 1989. The program was called the Geologic Remote Sensing Field Experiment (GRSFE). Publicly available data sets include TIMS and AVIRIS.
Additional information:
http://wufs.wustl.edu/geodata/grsfe/gr_0001/AAREADME.TXT

Controlled testing using constructed targets
"Parking lot" measurements of selected targets outside, such as trays of relevant endmembers (e.g. palagonite, varnished/painted material, carbonate). This allows inclusion of a more controlled range of viewing angles, overall target emissivities, and textures, yet still provides testing in the field environment. This should occur prior to a campaign at a geologic analog site, to better prepare for that test.

Atacama Desert
1) Relevance. The Atacama Desert is one of the oldest (15 Myr) and driest deserts on Earth (Ericksen, 1981). The Atacama Desert lies in northern Chile between the coast range mountains in the west and the Andes mountains in the east. Because Mars is in an exceedingly arid state, the age and aridity of the Atacama allows it to be one of the best terrestrial Mars analogs for developing hypotheses regarding the geochemistry and mineralogy of the Martian surface. The Atacama Desert possesses an arid-humid gradient where soils in the northern Atacama (e.g., east of Antofagasta) are more arid than soils in the southern Atacama (near Copiapo) (FIGURE 1, Map of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile). Soil and geological research along this arid-humid gradient has the advantage of observing how changes in water activity affect soil and geological properties. The prevalence of sulfate and chloride rich soils in the Atacama (Ericksen, 1981) make Atacama soils potential analogs to the sulfur and chlorine rich soils of Mars. Furthermore, soils in the Atacama are enriched in nitrate, which may provide insight into the possible occurrence of nitrate on Mars.
2) Public data. To my knowledge there are no public spectral data bases for the Atacama. There may be some IR data in publications that I am unaware of.
3) Private data. Near IR (0.5 to 2.5  �m) and mid-IR (2.5 to 25  �m) laboratory spectra have been collected of soils at three different sites along the arid/humid gradient in the Atacama. As soon as I publish these results, I will be more than happy to make this data available to the public. I do not know what resources are needed to put this data into the public domain.
7) Site access. Access to the sites I have sampled is easy. There are dirt roads all throughout the Atacama Desert due to the extensive mining activity that has occurred and that continues to this day. Trucks are can be rented from any rental agency (e.g., Avis, Hertz etc) in Chile.

Ancient Lake Bed Sediments
I would suggest adding a site in which ancient lake bed sediments are exposed as in the Basin and Range and Mojave. A few examples are Lake Tecopa, Mono Lake basin, Searles Lake basin. Given the apparently enthusiasm to go to a lake bed site to sample the windblown dust lake bed data might be useful. The closed basins of the Mojave / western Basin and Range have some interesting and occasionally bizarre minerals.

2. INSTRUMENTS

Instruments/information submitted by Nov. 8 will be added to the Dec discussion.
Please send to [email protected]

Airborne imaging spectrometers (hyperspectral)
AVIRIS (NASA)
http://makalu.jpl.nasa.gov/aviris.html

SEBASS (Aerospace)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kirkland

AHI (U-Hawaii)
http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/ahi/


Airborne imaging multi-channel radiometers (multi-spectral)
MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) (NASA)
http://masterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/

MAS (MODIS Airborne Simulator) (NASA)
http://mas.arc.nasa.gov/

TIMS (NASA)
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/airsci/er-2/tims.html


Satellite imaging multi-channel radiometers (multi-spectral)
ASTER
http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/


Field imaging spectrometers (hyperspectral)
M100 (Aerospace)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kirkland

SEBASS (Aerospace)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kirkland

HEHSI (U-Central Florida)

AHI (U-Hawaii)
http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/ahi/

Information/submissions to aid these discussions are welcome and will be placed on this site.

Please contact Laurel Kirkland
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