THE VARIATION OF ULTRAVIOLET IRRADIANCE AT THE MARTIAN SURFACE

摘要

The solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation environment on planetary surfaces is of importance in a range of scientific disciplines. Solar UV radiation is a driving force of organic and chemical evolution, serving also as a constraint in biological evolution. To gain an idea of how the martian UV radiation varies between different areas, including suggested landing sites of various future Mars landing probes, we modelled the total solar UV surface flux as function of season and planetary latitude during one martian year, and calculated daily UV irradiation conditions at martian perihelion and aphelion. A radiative transfer model was developed, representing each gaseous/aerosol species present in the martian atmosphere, allowing modelling of any position on the martian surface at any time. The focus of this work is towards determining areas of possible future landing sites from an astrobiological perspective, taking into account the variation of UV irradiance across the martian surface.