Javier Martín-Torres

Javier Martín-Torres (born 27 July 1970) is a Spanish physicist with interests in atmospheric sciences (mainly Earth, Mars, and exoplanet atmospheres), geophysics, and astrobiology. He has published over 150 scientific papers in these areas, and participated in more 500 presentations in international conferences.
He is chaired professor in Atmospheric Sciences at Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LTU), Sweden, and Senior Research Scientist of the Spanish Research Council, assigned to the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, located in Armilla, Granada, Spain. He is also visiting professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, and Specially Appointed Professor at the University of Okayama. Previously has worked for ESA, California Institute of Technology, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and 10 years for NASA at the Langley Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Martin-Torres has experience in space mission development through the whole chain: first idea- design- development-modelling-operations. He is currently principal investigator of the HABIT instrument that will be part of ExoMars 2020, and is co-I of the current and future missions to Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover, ACS/Trace Gas Orbiter, and ISEM/ExoMars rover.
Mars research
Martin-Torres is the principal investigator of the instrument which will travel to Mars as part of the scientific payload of the ExoMars 2020 mission to investigate, amongst other things, the water exchange cycle between the atmosphere and the Martian regolith.
He has been the scientific responsible for the REMS instrument in NASA's Curiosity rover, which since 2012 investigates the habitability of Mars, and co-investigator of 7 space missions of NASA and ESA.
Martin-Torres is co-author of the latest reported discoveries about the Martian environment, namely, the presence of fixed Nitrogen (Evidence for indigenous nitrogen in sedimentary and aeolian deposits from the Curiosity rover investigations at Gale crater, Mars) and native organics in Martian ground(Organic molecules in the Sheepbed Mudstone, Gale Crater, Mars), the detection of methane plumes in the atmosphere (Mars methane detection and variability at Gale crater) and, remarkably, the daily formation of liquid aqueous solutions on the soil (Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars).
Transient liquid water on Mars
On December 2014, Nature Geoscience magazine published the paper Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars, whose signatories were headed by Martín-Torres. It deals with a study developed from data registered along a full Martian year by means of different instruments on board Curiosity rover/ MSL mission, namely, Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM). In the study, it is stated that there is a daily cycle of water exchange between the atmospheric boundary layer and the ground, including a phase during which the water remains in a transient liquid state. This is possible thanks to the presence in the soil of perchlorates, a highly hygroscopic kind of chlorine salts which seem to be ubiquitous over the Martian surface. These salts have the capability of catching water vapour from the environment up to the point of becoming solved in it forming concentrated solutions or brines. It is an extreme case of hygroscopy known as deliquescence.
The eutectic temperature of these brines allows its permanence in liquid state under the registered Martian environmental conditions in the study area of Curiosity, close to the equator, where they are the least favourable for this to happen. Therefore, it is expected that the phenomenon is more intense in terms of duration of the liquid phase in higher latitudes.
The presence of liquid water on present day Mars entails transcendent consequences in a number of aspects of the planet’s exploration. Firstly, it casts a new light on the comprehension of Martian environment, and can be the key to understand some morphological features of the surface, such as the so-called Recurrent Slope Lineae (RSLs). In addition, the discovery has posed the necessity for taking special precautions to avoid biological contamination of the planet with terrestrial organisms carried on board the spacecrafts to be sent in the next missions, since the availability of liquid water multiply the possibilities for them to survive and thrive in certain places. Finally, water can be a valuable in-situ resource at the disposal of a crew which is eventually sent to Mars someday.
However, the brines themselves have not been monitored yet, and a quantification of the phenomenon is still missing. This is what the Brine Observation Transition to Liquid Experiment (BOTTLE, one of the units composing HABIT instrument) is being developed for.
Radiative Transfer modelling
Radiative Transfer was the core area of Martin-Torres’ early career. He developed non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium models to explain the emissions of some of the main emitters in the infrared (ozone, methane, nitric oxide, hydroxyl, dinitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide); and has been part of the Science Team of MIPAS/Envisat, SABER/TIMED, and Orbiting Carbon Observatory.
Martin-Torres is author of the line-by radiative transfer code , which is widely used to model radiative processes in the atmosphere. It has been used to model the Earth’s atmosphere and the atmospheres of Mars, Venus, and Titan, and simulations of Earthshine for exoplanet applications.
He was member, as Visiting Associate Research Scientist, of the University of California in Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science & Engineering (JIFRESSE)
Selected publications
*F. Javier Martín-Torres and María-Paz Zorzano, The Fate of Freedom of a Space Exploration Mission Encountering Life and the Liberty of the “Encountered” Extra-Terrestrial Beings, chapter of the book The Meaning of Liberty Beyond Earth, Space and Society Series, Springer International Publishing; 2015 edition, .
*F. J. Martín-Torres and J. F. Buenestado, ¿Qué sabemos de la vida en el Universo?, Editorial: CSIC y Catarata, ISBN: 978-84-8319-840-7, Páginas: 128, 2013
*Martín-Torres F. J., and A. Delgado-Bonal, A Mathematic Approach to Nitrogen Fixation Through Earth History, chapter of book Nitrogen in Planetary Systems: The Early Evolution of Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets, , Springer-Verlag, 2013.
*Trigo-Rodríguez, J. M. and F. J. Martín-Torres, Implication of Impacts in the Young Earth Sun Paradox and the Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere, chapter of book Nitrogen in Planetary Systems: The Early Evolution of Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets, , Springer-Verlag, 2013.
*Co-author in book as part of the Venus Entry Probe Team, Venus Entry Probe Workshop, Note du Pole de Planetologie, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace des Sciences de l’Environnement Global, ISSN 1768-0042, 2006.

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