19-21 September 2023

From 19 to 21 September, the “Dust on Mars” final workshop was organised at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA- IASB) in Brussels (Belgium). The workshop was organized as a mix of invited lectures, oral presentations and poster sessions, and addressed different topics related to dust and clouds, their characteristics (dynamics, radiative), their characterisation in the lab, and detection using remote sensing instruments.

The workshop was co-funded by RoadMap and specifically addressed PhD and Master students.

Invited lectures:

• Optical properties of Martian dust - I. Laboratory measurements, Olga Muñoz (IAA, Spain): presentation - recording
• Optical properties of Martian dust - II. Modeling, Julia Martikainen (IAA, Spain): presentation - recording
• Collisions of grains: From sticking to fragmentation, Gerhard Wurm (UDE, Germany): presentation - recording
• Wind driven dust and sand transport, Jonathan Merrison (AU, Denmark): presentation - recording
• Dust aerosol properties on Mars from spacecraft: A current perspective, Yannick Willame (BIRA-IASB, Belgium) & Mike Wolff (SSI, USA): presentation - recording
• Light polarization and its use in retrievals of atmospheric particles (clouds, aerosols), Filip Vanhellemont (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
• Monitoring Martian dust storms by multi-satellite observations, Luca Montabone (SSI, USA): presentation - recording
• GCM modelling of dust: transport and radiative effects, Lori Neary (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording

Other presentations:

• Power attenuation of Mars rovers solar panels due to dust accumulation, Thomas Pierron (CNRS, France): presentation - recording
• Compilation of the results of laboratory measurements at UDE, Tim Becker (UDE, Germany): presentation - recording
• Aerosol climatology from NOMAD UVIS, Zachary Flimon (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
• Temperature retrievals from NOMAD-SO, Loïc Trompet (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
• Improving the dust vertical distribution in the Mars PCM: Successes and challenges, Antoine Bierjon (CNRS, France): presentation - recording

The workshop included an interaction with students from the LUCA School of Art who presented an updated version of their artistic visualizations of Martian dust and ice clouds, created during their “magnet week” in March. Some impressions…

The 55^th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Scieces (DPS-EPSC) was held in San Antonio, TX, USA, 1-6 October (2023). RoadMap partners presented the following presentations:

• The Martian atmosphere and surface observed by NOMAD on ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Vandaele et al.

Partners of the RoadMap project were involved in the organization of the 20th Electromagnetic and Light Scattering International Conference, which was held at Almuñécar (Spain), 15-19 May 2023.

LOC members:          Julia Martikainen, Fernando Moreno, and Daniel Guirado

SOC member:            Ann C. Vandaele

Session conveners: Olga Muñoz, Karri Muinonen, and Gorden Videen

Also, RoadMap partners presented the following oral presentations:

• The role of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Ann C. Vandaele (Invited)
• Retrieving optical properties of dust particles from laboratory data: refractive indices and scattering matrix elements. Julia Martikainen 

The AGU Fall Conference was held in San Francisco, CA, USA, 11-15 December (2023). RoadMap partners presented the following presentations:

• Aeolian Dust Generation from Saltation Bombardement on Mars - Efficiency and Electrification. Tim Becker, Jens Teiser, Teresa Jardiel, Marco Peiteado, Olga Munoz, Julia Martikainen, Juan Carlos Gomez Martin, Jon Merrison, Gerhard Wurm