COMMUNITY MEETINGS FOR
VISIBLE/INFRARED STUDIES OF THE SURFACE OF MARS

This site contains information on open meetings and workshop reports for the Mars visible-infrared spectral community, with a focus on surface studies.

Contact information





-March 16th, 2004: Community Lunch at LPSC-

Where and When:
During the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Tuesday, March 16th, 12:00 noon, at the conference site, in the Poolside Salon, which is on the lower level from the main meeting rooms. We had sandwiches and soft drinks, and it was a chance for people to meet and also to discuss issues of concern to the community.
The meeting was open to all interested researchers, and students were encouraged to attend.

Tutorial and Discussion:
Each of the Mars rovers carries a Moessbauer spectrometer, a multispectral visible imager, and a thermal infrared spectrometer. A basic understanding of Moessbauer spectroscopy will facilitate the community's capability to correlate results from visible-infrared data sets with Moessbauer interpretations.

Darby Dyar presented a tutorial and discussion of Moessbauer spectroscopy, covering:
--How a Moessbauer spectrometer works
--How typical lab and rover measurements are similar, and differ
--How the technique can complement passive visible-IR spectrometers (e.g., MiniTES)
--What it does particularly well, and what is more difficult
--Impact of surface textures (e.g., solid vs. particulate, coatings, crystal size)
--What studies are needed, particularly in areas that overlap or complement visible-infrared spectrometers

Sandwiches and soft drinks were available at $5 for those who responded by March 9th.


Past Lunch Meeting:
March 18th, 2003: Community Lunch at LPSC

Where and When it was Held:
During the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Tuesday, March 16th, 11:45, at the conference site. It was a chance for people to meet and learn about recent spectral techniques, over sandwiches and soft drinks. The meeting was open to all interested researchers, and students were particularly encouraged to attend.

Attendance:
Approximately 90 people attended. This included many students, who were introduced to the full group at the start of the meeting

Speakers:
In addition to informal discussion, speakers covered four topics:
Steve Watson (Balloon Platform for Field Research)
Joern Helbert (Thermal Emission Spectrometer for Mercury)
Shiv Sharma (Raman Spectroscopy)
David Cremers and Roger Wiens (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, LIBS)

Sandwiches and soft drinks were $5.





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

December 2002 Community Workshop Report



PARTICIPANTS ADDRESSED:
(1) Transfer of private spectral data bases into the public domain.
What is needed to motivate and facilitate the transfer of lab, field, airborne, and telescopic data sets?
(2) Community data for terrestrial analog studies.
What field data sets does the community most need, in light of the currently available data sets, funding, and most time-critical problems?
(3) Foundation needed for reviewers of potential 2009 rover instruments.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS, SUPPORTING INFORMATION
This workshop was open to all interested researchers.
Held at the Fall AGU Conference, San Francisco.
Sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.


June 2003
SESSION OF INTEREST AT THE JUNE 2003 MSA MEETING

Convener: Brad Jolliff
Information




INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF MARS:
FROM THE THEORY AND THE LABORATORY TO FIELD OBSERVATIONS

June 2002 Community Workshop Report

An open community workshop was held at LPI to address the question:
What terrestrial theoretical, laboratory, and field studies are most needed to best support timely interpretations of current and planned visible/infrared spectrometer data sets, in light of the Mars Program goals?

Summary. The two most critical gaps are in coordinated end-to-end field testing and in libraries of spectroscopic data. Three related gaps are in data from terrestrial sites to aid TES and CRISM interpretations, lack of high quality development data to support landers, and delays in funding owing to lack of coordination between R&A proposal dues dates and mission data releases.

The report contains detailed recommendations.



INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF MARS: WHAT NEXT?

June 1999 Community Workshop Report

Members of the Mars infrared spectral community met to discuss what critical gaps may exist:
1) after the successful completion of planned measurements of Mars; and
2) in research programs to support current and planned data sets.

Summary. Participants concluded that the most critical gap is in very high information content spectra of targeted regions. Experience gained from spectral data sets of Mars and Earth has shown that an unambiguous interpretation requires very high information content. High information content is obtained by measuring with broad spectral range, high spectral resolution, and high signal to noise ratio.
This workshop occurred prior to the selection of the 2005 CRISM.


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