The reflectance Laboratory

This instrument (top left) was developped by Bernard Schmitt and Olivier Brissaud, and is presently located in a cold room (-10--30°C). This unique instrument enables to measure bi-directionnal reflectance spectra of minerals, ices and even liquids, and then to reproduce the geometric conditions of planetary surfaces observations. The spectral resolution can be tuned and the angular resolution is below 1 degree. Maximum phase angle that can be achieved is about 170° while the minimum is around 8°.

The instrument can be combined with environmental cells, starting with the SERAC chamber (Pommerol et al., 2009) which enables to control the vapor pressure to which the sample is exposed, and measured «spectro»-isotherms.

The spectro-photo-goniometer

Currently we are developping a low-T (down to 50 K) cell in order to study CO2 and N2 ices (Florence Grisolle PhD, B. Schmitt/P. Beck directors, right picture). We were very succesfuls in producing and trnsforming CO2 ices, with applications to the saeasonal condensates of the Martian surfaces. Some exemples of CO2 textures (snow, slab, large individuals crystals) are shown below.

For more information, read Florence’s PhD (in french) while we are writing the corresponding articles.