Atmosphere of Mars and southern hemispheres. Mars's temperature difference greatly influences the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, because warmer air can contain more moisture. This, in turn, affects the production of ozone-destroying hydrogen radicals. In early 2016, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected atomic oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars. This was the first time in forty years it was detected, the last time being the Viking and Mariner missions in the 1970s. Molecular nitrogen (N) is present in the atmosphere at 1.9%. Measurements by various robotic missions, and analyses of Martian meteorites, show that the atmosphere is enriched in
Dobson ozone spectrophotometer and comparing it to that of UVA radiation at ground level. If all of the ozone were removed from the atmosphere, the amount of UVB radiation would equal the amount of UVA radiation on the ground. As ozone does exist in the atmosphere, the Dobson Spectrometer can use the ratio between UVA and UVB radiation on the ground to determine how much ozone is present in the upper atmosphere to absorb the UVC radiation. The ratio is determined by turning the R-dial, which can be rotated a full 300°, on the instrument. The spectrometer compares two different wavelength intensities, UVB