Thread by @People_Of_Space

Hi space folks! 👋 Today I want to talk about @esamarswebcam, which is the #MarsExpress Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) instrument that I work for 📷. This first thread will be an intro to VMC & how it came to be. Later today, I'll talk about the work I do for it! 🔴😀

Yesterday, I mentioned the failed Beagle 2 lander (see linked tweet). VMC was originally put on #MarsExpress (MEX) as an engineering camera to monitor the deployment of this lander. Here's an image from VMC showing the lander's separation from MEX 📷

VMC didn’t take pictures again until 2007, when engineers at ESOC 🇩🇪 decided to switch it on again (basically bc, well, why not!!). VMC has some quirks as it wasn't designed to be a science instrument- it's in a slightly different place to the other instruments (19 deg offset)

& as it follows a different data protocol, it can't observe simultaneously with other instruments (they would lose their data). So ESOC engineers started taking pictures with VMC when it wouldn't interfere with routine science operations: and so VMC became the "Mars webcam"! 📷🔴

VMC continued in this manner until 2016 when the UPV/EHU planetary sciences group in Bilbao, Spain (ajax.ehu.es @zpt_gcp) realised it could be used for studies of high-altitude plumes on Mars. And so, VMC became a science instrument! 🥳🎉🙌 esa.int/Enabling_Suppo…

VMC images are low-resolution, but the camera has a wide field of view, and it can capture the entirety of Mars in an image. This is really useful for observations of regional and global scale atmospheric phenomena! 🔴 (Image credit ESA/UPV-EHU Bilbao/Eleni Ravanis)

(I apologise for paywalls here!) VMC studies have included limb clouds on Mars ☁️ (doi.org/10.1016/j.icar…), analysis of the 2018 Mars global dust storm (doi.org/10.1029/2019GL…) & investigation of a "double cyclone” in the Northern latitudes of Mars (doi.org/10.1029/2018JE…) 🌀

And more!! I'll do a thread about my own work + more current VMC studies later today. So, tldr; VMC 📷 was originally intended to monitor the Beagle 2 lander, but was switched back on again in 2007, and is now considered one of the science instruments on #MarsExpress! 🔴📷🛰️