Point-by-Point Footpad Temperature Sensor Data
                          May 22, 1979 (Ls 286.0 MY 13) to Nov 13, 1982 (Ls 226.5 MY 15)






























    These plots show several diurnal cycles of the measured point-by-point Viking Lander 1 Lander Footpad Sensor Temperature values during two selected seasons, Ls ~300 (mission years 2 and 3) and Ls ~225 (mission Years 3 and 4). The Ls ~300 graph above (left) indicates that at that season during Years 2 and 3 the measured footpad temperature sensor values were similar. The Ls ~225 graph (right) indicates that the Year 4 temperatures were cooler during the day and warmer at night compared to the Year 3 temperatures; this is consistent with the greater dust optical depth which occurred at this season during Year 4 compared to Year 3. Here's the link to the data.








    Useful Mission Documents

    Data Description
    Individual Lander footpad measured temperature description document. This dataset contains the martian near-surface temperatures obtained from the Viking Lander 1 and 2 thermocouple footpad temperature sensors during VL1 sols 1008-2245. VL2 data span only VL2 sols 1000-1050.

    Retrieving the Data

    Go to Volume vl_1002 Data
    Viking 1 and 2 data file and labels are identified as vl_ftpd.dat, vl_ftpd.xml and vl_ftpd.lbl respectively. Individual measurements are available within vl_ftpd.dat with its contents described in vl_ftpd.xml and vl_ftpd.lbl. VL1 and VL2 are grouped together in the same file.

    Citing datasets for Publication

    Tillman, J.E., VL1/VL2-M-FTS-3-FOOTPAD-TEMP-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 1989.