EMCS - ExoMars Climate Sounder

Date: 10 Mar 2011
Depicts: Climate Sounder instrument for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Copyright: NASA/JPL

The ExoMars Climate Sounder (EMCS) will be similar to the Mars Climate Sounder instrument, shown here prior to its installation onto NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the mission's 2006 launch.

EMCS will be one of the instruments to fly on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter of the 2016 ExoMars mission. EMCS will closely resemble this predecessor, which is about 40 cm across.

NASA’s Mars Climate Sounder has provided a record of the changing vertical distributions of temperatures, dust, water vapour and ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere since 2006. EMCS will extend that record with the ability to collect data at all times of day and at all latitudes, due to a different orbital geometry. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will also carry instruments for detecting very low concentrations of gaseous evidence about possible life on Mars. Information from the climate sounder will add context for understanding how transport and chemical reactions in the atmosphere affect trace gases.