Radio and optical detection of Martian dust storm discharges

Given the known physical attributes of Martian dust storms, we derive their electromagnetic signatures as they would be perceived both remotely and in situ. We also describe a radiowave and optical experiment (REDD), suitable for deployment on the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, whose primary scientific objective is to establish the electrical nature of dust storms in the Martian atmosphere. This experiment would be capable of the remote tracking of dust storms across the Martian surface while estimating electrical properties of dust, dust densities, and surface conductivities. The experiment sensors consist of two orthogonal magnetic search coil antennas, an electric field antenna, and a horizon-looking photodetector. The sensors drive a waveform capture system and a set of multichannel analyzers that span the radio spectrum from 1 kHz to 100 MHz. The data sampling strategy incorporates a low-resolution survey mode and a high rime-resolution direction-finding mode. Intelligent use of an event-trigger system, circular buffer storage, and data compression minimize the instrument data rate and the impact on spacecraft resources. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.