Detection and Quantification of Volatiles at Mars using a multispectral LIDAR

We present a concept for using a polarization sensitive multispectral lidar to map the seasonal distribution and exchange of volatiles among the reservoirs of the Martian surfaceand atmosphere. The LIDAR instrument will be a multi-wavelength, altitude-resolved, active near-infrared (NIR, with 10 bands around 1.6 microns) instrument to measure the reflected intensity and polarization of backscattered radiation from planetary surfacesand atmospheres. The proposed instrument would be ideally suited for a mission to Mars to comprehensively investigate the nature and seasonal distributions of volatiles and aerosols. The investigation would include the abundance of atmospheric dust and condensed volatiles, surface and cloud/aerosol grain sizes and shapes, ice and dust particle microphysicsand also variations in atmospheric chemistryduring multiple overflight local timesthroughout polar nightand day. Such an instrument would be ideal for mapping and detection of recently detected CO2 frost phenomena and H2O and CO2 precipitation events in the polar regions of Mars. Herein we discuss the applicability of this instrument to detect and map sublimation/deposition 'mode flips' recently discovered by Brown et al. (2016) using the CRISM passive infrared sensoron Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.