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Old 20-January-2009, 05:15 AM
borman borman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonClarke View Post
I guess it would depnd on whether CRISM (or OMEGA for that matter) can detect the wavelengths where methane has a strong absorption.
Fundamental and overtone

I checked the CRISM page and saw the range that goes form optical into the near infrared: 0.362 to 3.92 microns.

http://crism.jhuapl.edu/instrument/i...tem_Properties

There is an informative interview with Dr. Mumma by the Astrobiology Magazine where he stated the main bands for methane are 3.3 (C-H) and 7.7 microns:

The Martian Methane Surprise

http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1332.html

So I gather CRISM can only see one band clearly and not the other fundamental. The first overtone of the 7.7 micron band would be just within CRISM’s view possibly. So while the identification would not be as definitive, it would be suggestive or indicative of a methane signal.

Now that we have a rough idea of the vicinity to search and when to search, CRISM could supply a higher definition or resolution to possible source sites of potential vents.

ESA OMEGA can see from 1.0 to 5.2 micrometers, so it, like CRISM could see one fundamental and a possible harmonic of the 7.7 micron band. At high resolution it can look at 300 meter pixels.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...bodylongid=661
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