Retrieval of martian dust and cloud properties from ground-based radiance sensors observations

On Mars, dust and clouds are primary elements for studying the interactions of solar radiation with the atmosphere and surface and their influence on the radiation balance. Depending on dust opacity and parameters such as size distribution, airborne dust can provide positive or negative radiative feedbacks into dynamical processes. This role played by dust in the circulation of the martian atmosphere points out the need of retrieving the concentration and physical properties of dust at different time periods and locations. In this work, we will discuss different retrieval procedures developed for ground-based sensors. We first perform several sensitivity tests of the sensors signals to parameters such as the dust opacity and size distribution to establish which dust parameters can be retrieved by the different sensors. Subsequently, in order to adopt for each sensor the retrieval procedures capable to obtain as much information as possible on the optical properties of martian aerosol, we will evaluate different configurations of the procedures as well. A similar study will be presented for the detection and characterization of martian clouds.