UAE’s Hope Probe captures observations about Mars atmosphere in third batch of data

UAE’s Hope Probe captures observations about Mars atmosphere in third batch of data

The Emirates Mars Mission ‘Hope Probe’ captured new observations about Mars atmosphere in its third batch of scientific data collected by the probe’s instruments. The data was collected during its mission in Mars’ orbit, between September 1 and November 30, 2021. The data from the third batch included more than 57 gigabytes of information, images, and data about the red planet’s atmosphere, making the total data released by the probe to reach 827.7 gigabytes. Within the data, a special high cadence imagery observation took place using the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) camera. The observation was designed to capture motion and evolution in the atmosphere, where it observed high-density clouds on November 22, 2021. During the data collection period of the third batch, the Mars Solar Conjunction phase took place, which paused communication, science observations and data collection owed to the blocked line-of-sight communication between Earth and missions around Mars, with both planets on the opposite sides of the Sun. During this phase, which occurs almost every two years, the Sun emits hot, ionised gas, which interfered with radio signals when communicating with the Hope Probe. Post the phase, Mars’ orbital motion around the Sun allowed the probe to regain its