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Emirates Mars Mission to organise fifth annual workshop

Professors, academics, and students from the UAE are invited to register for the fifth annual science workshop.

The fifth annual Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) Science Workshop, organised by the EMM Science team, will be held in Dubai from February 27-28 at Address Sky View Hotel. The event will be conducted in a hybrid format, facilitating both in-person and virtual attendance.

While the first day will focus on a series of mini-workshops across different topics, the second day will host a series of panel discussions and talks centred on the science of the Emirates Mars Mission. The EMM Science workshop will focus on discussing the Emirates Mars Mission’s latest results and current understanding of the Martian atmosphere and its turbulent climate.

The event provides a platform for networking and knowledge transfer for scientists, researchers, professors, and university students interested in space science and the Red Planet.  

Speaking about the EMM Science Workshop, Engineer Omran Sharaf, Project Director of Emirates Mars Mission, said: “Holding the Emirates Mars Mission’s fifth scientific workshop is part of our continuous efforts to exchange knowledge and expertise gained through Hope probe with local and global science community, academics and research centres. Our aim is to build scientific and technical capacity to support UAE’s effort in building a competitive knowledge economy.”

Engineer Hessa Al Matroushi, Deputy Programme Manager and Science Lead of Emirates Mars Mission, added: “The workshop coincides with the first anniversary of Hope Probe reaching Mars’ orbit on February 9, 2021. Since that historic day, the autonomous spacecraft has gathered unprecedented data on the Martian atmosphere, which has been shared with the global scientific community for the benefit of humankind. Our workshops will discuss the extraordinary findings and provide solutions to best utilize them in addition to highlighting engagement opportunities for the UAE science community through the mission.”

The workshops include a session on ‘EMM Science Data Access’ which will provide hands-on experience on accessing EMM science products through EMM Science Data Center website and through the provided Application Programming Interface [APIs]. It will also show the functionality available on the Data Center’s website and the different search filters available.

Another workshop on ‘Working with EMIRS Data’ will shed light on the various Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) products, focusing on the surface and lower atmosphere observations using infrared bands, a discussion of the calibration process, and hands-on exercises/ projects to help with using the data products.

Similarly, a workshop on ‘Working with EXI Data’ will provide an overview of the various Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) products which focuses on lower atmosphere observations using visible and ultraviolet bands, a discussion of calibration process, and hands-on exercises/projects to help with using the data products.

A workshop on ‘Working with EMUS Data’ will introduce the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) products focusing on upper atmosphere observations, including atmospheric escape and the thermosphere/ionosphere region, a discussion of calibration process, and hands-on exercises/projects to help with using the data products.

Similarly, other workshops focusing on using JMARS (Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing) to access data from EMM and other Mars missions, will showcase an introduction to JMARS to help visualise the data.

The last workshop will help understand the Martian Climate and Hope Probe’s observations with the Mars Climate Database and Global Climate Modelling to understand the datasets provided by the EMM Hope Probe. This will be done by comparing the prediction from a Mars Global Climate Model to the one used for weather forecasting and climate change studies on Earth – but adapted to the Martian environment.