Viking Orbiter 1 & 2: Atmospheric Water (MAWD)



















Figure from Jakosky and Farmer, 1982, JGR, 87, 2999-3019. (https://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1982/JB087iB04p02999.shtml)

Above is shown the time and zonal mean martian water vapor column abundance, in units of precipitable microns, derived from MAWD measurements of absorption of Mars-reflected solar flux at 1.4 μm during the first ~1.2 martian years of the Viking Orbiter 1 and 2 missions.

The DATA contained within the Viking Orbiter 1 (vo1) and Viking Orbiter 2 (vo2) MAWD PDS archive provide the water vapor column estimates from which the above presentation was derived. The data themselves are presented in tabular ASCII form in the mawd_vo1.dat and mawd_vo2.dat files within the data folder within the archive; the mawd_vo1.lbl and mawd_vo2.lbl files in that same directory describe the contents of the *.dat files. The MAWD instrument is described within the inst.cat file located in the catalog folder, and the MAWD data are described in the dataset.cat file in that same folder.