ExoMars TGO/NOMAD-UVIS Vertical Profiles of Ozone: 1. Seasonal Variation and Comparison to Water

We present similar to 1.5 Mars Years (MY) of ozone vertical profiles, covering L-S = 163 degrees in MY34 to L-S = 320 degrees in MY35, a period which includes the 2018 global dust storm. Since April 2018, the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer channel of the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has observed the vertical, latitudinal and seasonal distributions of ozone. Around perihelion, the relative abundance of both ozone and water (from coincident NOMAD measurements) increases with decreasing altitude below similar to 40 km. Around aphelion, localized decreases in ozone abundance exist between 25 and 35 km coincident with the location of modeled peak water abundances. High-latitude (>+/- 55 degrees), high altitude (40-55 km) equinoctial ozone enhancements are observed in both hemispheres (L-S similar to 350 degrees-40 degrees) and discussed in the companion article to this work (Khayat et al., 2021). The descending branch of the main Hadley cell shapes the observed ozone distribution at L-S = 40 degrees-60 degrees, with the possible signature of a northern hemisphere thermally indirect cell identifiable from L-S = 40 degrees-80 degrees. Morning terminator observations show elevated ozone abundances with respect to evening observations, with average ozone abundances between 20 and 40 km an order of magnitude higher at sunrise compared to sunset, attributed to diurnal photochemical partitioning along the line of sight between ozone and O or fluctuations in water abundance. The ozone retrievals presented here provide the most complete global description of Mars ozone vertical distributions to date as a function of season and latitude.

Automated summary

The study presents data on Mars ozone vertical profiles over 1.5 Mars Years, including differences around perihelion and aphelion, as well as high latitude, high altitude ozone enhancements during equinoxes. Additionally, elevated ozone abundances at sunrise compared to sunset suggest diurnal photochemical partitioning or fluctuations in water abundance.