One Martian Year of MEDA/TIRS observations at the Mars 2020 landing site
Authors: Martinez German , Sebastian Eduardo , Smith Michael , Savijärvi Hannu , Gillespie Hartzel , Vicente-Retortillo Alvaro , Munguira Asier , Hueso Ricardo , Toledo Daniel , Tamppari Leslie , Newman Claire , Sanchez-Lavega Agustin , Lemmon Mark , Apestigue Victor , Arruego Ignacio , Fischer Erik , Pla-Garcia Jorge , Mora-Sotomayor Luis , de la Torre Juarez Manuel , Rodriguez-Manfredi Jose Antonio 
Published: February 2023

The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS; Sebasti&#225;n et al., 2021; Mart&#237;nez et al., 2023) is one of the six sensor packages of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA; Rodr&#237;guez-Manfredi et al., 2021), which in turn is one of the seven science instruments on board Perseverance. Here we show a summary of TIRS scientific highlights during the first Martian year of operations. In particular, TIRS is providing the first in situ determination of the surface radiative budget, direct determination of broadband albedo and thermal inertia (Mart&#237;nez et al., 2023; Savij&#228;rvi et al., 2022), and around-the-clock determination of aerosol opacities (Smith et al., 2023). In addition, TIRS is providing ground-truth to orbital retrievals of thermal inertia and albedo, as well as geophysical characterization of the uppermost surface of the regolith during Phobos and Deimos eclipses. In synergy with other instruments, TIRS is being used to determine vertical profiles of temperature (Munguira et al., 2023), to detect dust lifting from sudden changes in albedo (Vicente-Retortillo et al., 2023), and to assess changes in the water content of the Martian soil (Hausrath et al., 2023), including the potential formation of frost.
TIRS observations are critical to achieve MEDA&#8217;s first programmatic objective (validate global atmospheric models by measuring the radiative surface budget in preparation for future human exploration). Also, TIRS observations are important in support of flights of Ingenuity and therefore for the design and operations of future drones.&#160;
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