Visualizing and Analyzing Martian Atmospheric Data in JMARS
S.L. Dickenshied, Mars Space Flight Facility, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (sdickens@mars.asu.edu),
C.S. Edwards, Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ,
P.R. Christensen, S. Anwar, D.D. Noss, Mars Space Flight Facility, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ,
M.M. Osterloo, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado
Introduction:
JMARS (Java Mission-planning and Analysis for
Remote Sensing) is a free GIS (Geospatial
Information System) tool (Christensen et al. 2009)
that has been used to visualize and analyze Mars
remote sensing data for over 20 years. In addition to
allowing users to easily access visible, thermal,
RADAR, and spectral datasets that have been
collected over the years, JMARS also offers a
number of tools and layers for working with
modeled and measured Martian atmospheric
datasets.
The JMARS application as well as
numerous tutorials, videos, and helpful links can be
found at http://jmars.asu.edu.
This abstract will highlight some of the more
recent JMARS layers that support Mars atmospheric
visualization and analysis. Other datasets included
in JMARS but not highlighted here include the TES
(Christensen et al. 2001) spectral layer as well as
both a queryable wind vector layer and global wind
speed maps (Adler et al. 2016) based on the NASA
Ames GCM (Haberle et al. 2019).

First, the user can pick from a variety of display
types:
Temperature
Atmospheric Pressure
Zonal Wind
Atmospheric Density (Rho)
Water Vapor
Water Ice
Dust Column
Dust Deposition
Radius of Dust Particle
Solar Flux Reflected to Space
Solar Flux to Surface
Thermal Flux from Surface to Space
Thermal Flux from Space to Surface
Meridional Wind

MCD Map Slider:
Built from a set of pre-generated maps based on
an MCD 5.3 model (Forget et al. 1999; Millour et al.
2018) run, the JMARS MCD Map Slider layer offers
the user a choice of many different parameters that
can then be viewed in sequence as part of a playlist.

Figure 2. JMARS Map Slider Layer showing three corresponding Water
Ice maps for 9 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m (top to bottom)
Figure 1. JMARS Map Slider Layer showing initial input values.

By default, data will be displayed in grayscale
space stretched uniformly between the detected
minimum and maximum values contained in each
map, but the user can override the min and max
values for a custom stretch if desired. A standard
JMARS color palette can be optionally applied to
turn the grayscale image into a colorized map. The
resulting map can also be blended on the fly with the
MOLA Shaded Relief to provide additional surface
context.
Then the user can then further refine the data by
adjusting three input sliders:
Ls values from 0-350 in 10 degree increments.
Hour values from 0-23 in 1 hour increments.
Altitude values of 0, 1, 10, 100, 1k, 5k, 10k, 20k,
40k, 60k, 80k, or 100k meters.
The user can adjust the values for any of these
parameters as desired, and the displayed map will be
updated appropriately. If desired, a user can choose
to preload an entire range of maps, for example, all
of the available Ls values, which will cause JMARS
to request and cache each map in turn. This then
allows for quick cycling between maps, either
manually or by using the layer’s Animation controls
to iterate through each available option (10 degrees
of Ls in this example) every 1-5 seconds.
MCD Point Layer:
The JMARS MCD Point Layer allows a user to
input a few parameters for a single point and then
dynamically generate modeled climate data at that
location.
Multiple points can be created and
compared against one another.
In addition to the point (which defines the
latitude and longitude), the user can also input:
Local Time
Ls
Height above surface
Scenario (1-8)
Elevations

Pressure, Local Time, or Ls against 78 different
calculated parameters, including Temperature,
Pressure, Altitude, Water Vapor, Water Ice, and many
different volume mixing ratios.
KRC Point Layer:
The JMARS KRC Point Layer allows a user to
specify a number of parameters for a location and
then use krc (Keiffer 2013) to calculate the
remaining parameter.
In addition to the point (which defines the
latitude and longitude), the user can also input:
Ls
Local Time
Elevation
Albedo
Slope
Opacity
Azimuth
and either Thermal Inertia
or Temperature
Defaults for all of these inputs will be provided
by JMARS based on global maps or common input
values. The user can accept the defaults or override
with a different value. Multiple points can be
defined and compared against one another.
Once krc has been run on the input parameters,
the user will be provided with diurnal and annual
temperature curves.

Figure 4. JMARS KRC Point Layer showing initial input values (left),
and the resulting diurnal temperature plot (right).

Figure 3. JMARS MCD Point Layer showing initial input values (left),
and a corresponding diurnal temperature curve (right).

With the points and their parameters now defined,
the user can press a button to calculate MCD data for
them. The user interface then provides options to
view plots of the generated data based on Height,

EMIRS Spots Layer:
The EMIRS Spots layer in JMARS allows a user
to query spectral data collected by the EMIRS
instrument (Edwards 2021) on the Emirates Mars
Mission (EMM) to study Mars atmosphere
(Almatroushi et al. 2021; Amiri et al. 2022).
Metadata for each spot can be viewed in a standard
table, while observational footprints can be viewed
in the spatial context of any other dataset available in
JMARS. In addition, each of the footprint spots can
be colorized based on metadata values or custom on
the fly expressions to produce dynamic data maps.
In addition to retrieving EMIRS spots that fall
within a specified spatial extent, the user can query
on many of the most popular metadata fields,

including:
Incidence Angle
Emission Angle
Phase Angle
Solar Longitude
Local Time
Spacecraft Clock
Year-DOY
UTC
Orbit Number
Max Brightness Temperature
Users can also view spectral data for each
collected spot, such as Brightness Temperature,
Emissivity, and Calibrated Radiance. Such spectra
data can be added, subtracted, divided, and averaged
against other spectra to do quick comparisons and
analysis within the JMARS tool. All retrieved data
can also be easily exported into CSV formatted files
for advanced analysis in other tools.

Figure 5. JMARS EMIRS Spots Layer showing initial input values
(left), and the resulting observation spots colorized by the infrared
opacity of ice aerosols (tauice) (top right). A spectral plot of the
calibrated radiance for five selected EMIRS observations (bottom
right).

Future work:
The JMARS team will continue to add and
update datasets to support visualization of acquired
and modeled atmospheric data. Current plans
include providing access to EXI level 2b data
collected by the EMM mission, as well as a series of
gridded map projects that will be produced by the
EMIRS instrument team.
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