Informatics Publishing Limited

A. S. Arya ¹, S. S. Sarkar ¹, A. R. Srinivas ¹, S. Manthira Moorthi ¹, Vishnukumar D. Patel ¹, Rimjhim B. Singh ¹, R. P. Rajasekhar ¹, Sampa Roy ¹, Indranil Misra ¹, Sukamal Kr. Paul ¹, Dhrupesh Shah ², Kamlesh Patel ¹, Rajdeep K. Gambhir ¹, U. S. H. Rao ¹, Amul Patel ¹, Jalshri Desai ¹, Rahul Dev ¹, Ajay K. Prashar ¹, Hiren Rambhia ¹, Ranjan Parnami ¹, Harish Seth ¹, K. R. Murali ¹, Rishi Kaushik ¹, Deepak Patidar ¹, Nilesh Soni ¹, Prakash Chauhan ¹, D. R. M. Samudraiah ¹, A. S. Kiran Kumar ¹

Affiliations
1 Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, IN
2 Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015

Abstract

Mars Colour Camera (MCC) on-board Mars Orbiter Mission is considered the ‘eye’ of the mission, taking photographs (imageries) of the surfacial features on Mars, and the cloud and dust around it. MCC is an important contextual camera for other non-imaging sensors like MSM, TIS, LAP, etc. The camera has been designed, characterized, calibrated and qualified at the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad by a team of professional engineers and scientists. It has been miniaturized, ruggedized and space-qualified to match the weight and power budget of the mission. During Earth orbit phase, the images returned by the camera have been analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that MCC has been working as expected in terms of radiometry, geometry and application potential to discern various morphological features. The present article discusses these facts in detail.

Keywords

Detector, Earth imaging phase, payload, Mars colour camera.

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Kurian Mathew ¹, S. S. Sarkar ¹, A. R. Srinivas ¹, Moumita Dutta ¹, Minal x Minal Rohit ¹, Harish Seth ¹, Rajiv Kumaran ¹, Kshitij Pandya ¹, Ankush Kumar ¹, Jitendra Sharma ¹, Jalshri Desai ¹, Amul Patel ¹, Vishnu Patel ¹, Piyush Shukla ¹, S. Manthira Moorthi ¹, Aravind K. Singh ¹, Ashutosh Gupta ¹, Jaya Rathi ¹, P. Narayana Babu ¹, Saji A. Kuriakose ¹, D. R. M. Samudraiah ¹, A. S. Kiran Kumar ¹

Affiliations
1 Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 058, IN

Abstract

Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), on-board Mars Orbiter Mission is a differential radiometer based on Fabry–Perot Etalon (FPE) filters which measures column density of methane in the Martian atmosphere. It is the first FPE sensor ever flown to space. Spectral, spatial and radiometric performances of the sensor were characterized thoroughly during the pre-launch calibration. Geophysical calibration of the sensor was carried out using the data acquired over Sahara desert during Earth Parking Orbit phase. Retrieval algorithm for MSM, which is based on the linearization of radiative transfer equations, gets simultaneous solutions for CH4 and CO2 concentrations in the Martian atmosphere.

Keywords

Differential radiometer, Fabry–Perot Etalon, geophysical calibration, methane sensor, retrieval algorithm.

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Kurian Mathew ¹, A. S. Arya ¹, Harish Seth ¹, S. Manthira Moorthi ¹, P. N. Babu ¹

Affiliations
1 Space Applications Center, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, IN

Abstract

Mars Colour Camera on-board the Mars Orbital Mission makes use of a Bayer pattern detector. Spectral response of RGB (red, green and blue) pixels of Bayer detector shows large overlap which reduces the spectral information content of the image. In the present paper, a simple method is suggested to correct the data for spectral overlap. It is shown that correction process significantly increases the spectral information content of the image and enhances the ability of the sensor to identify different target types like dust clouds and water ice clouds.

Keywords

Bayer-Pattern Filters, Dust Clouds, Ice Clouds, Mars Colour Camera, Spectral Overlap.

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