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The synthesis
The same imaging-spectroscopy technique maps the mineral makeup of dust sources on Earth (Earth, EMIT) and on Mars (Planetary, CRISM) — letting two worlds inform one another.
How does dust on Earth compare to dust on Mars?
What you can answer
Compare the mineral fingerprint of dust-source regions on both planets.
Use Mars’ dust-storm behaviour to sharpen questions about Earth’s, and vice versa.
What you can NOT answer with these datasets alone
Combine the pixels directly — different worlds, instruments and scales.
Measure airborne dust composition — EMIT reads the surface source.
The cross-division bridge
Earth-anchored, reaching into Planetary Science. Both sides use the same physics — imaging spectroscopy. The Earth side is EMIT on the ISS, mapping the mineralogy of arid dust-source regions. The Planetary side is MRO CRISM, the visible-infrared spectrometer that mapped minerals across Mars. The shared technique lets each world’s dust science inform the other.
EMIT L2A surface reflectance (EMITL2ARFL) — imaging-spectrometer reflectance across ~380–2500 nm (~60 m) from the ISS, used to map diagnostic mineral absorption features of arid dust-source regions; compared conceptually (not pixel-merged) with MRO CRISM visible–infrared mineral maps of Mars, which share the same imaging-spectroscopy physics.
Method
Extract continuum-removed absorption-band depths/positions from EMIT reflectance to identify dust-source minerals (e.g. iron oxides, clays), then compare those spectral fingerprints qualitatively against CRISM-derived Mars mineralogy to let each planet's dust science inform the other.
Validation
Tie EMIT mineral identifications to spectral-library references and field/lab samples, and explicitly keep the two datasets separate — different worlds, instruments, illumination, and scales mean the comparison is by shared technique, not combined pixels; note EMIT reads the surface source, not airborne dust composition.
In plain EnglishAn Earth-orbiting spectrometer reads the mineral 'colours' of desert dust sources, and the same kind of instrument at Mars read its dust minerals — so we compare the fingerprints rather than the planets directly.
Make it yours →Select your dust-source AOI and the EMIT scenes (and target minerals) in the notebook.
⌨ Run the core method · no login
The robust trend (Theil–Sen + Mann–Kendall) at the heart of this question — runnable on synthetic data, right here. The full earthaccess code template further down does it on real NASA data (needs an Earthdata login).
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From another NASA division
◯ Planetary Science
MRO CRISM Mars Mineral Spectroscopy
A visible-infrared spectrometer mapping minerals across Mars — the planetary cousin of EMIT, built on the same imaging-spectroscopy idea.