The near-surface wind patterns as observed by NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission at Jezero Crater, Mars

Abstract

<p>NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater (~18.4ºN, 77.6ºE) on February 2021 at L<sub>s</sub>~5º, just after the northern spring equinox. Perseverance carries the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument [1], which includes a wind sensor that is a heritage from previous sensors sent to Mars as part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and InSight missions. Those sensors allowed the characterization of the near-surface wind patterns at Gale Crater [2] and Elysium Planitia [3,4]. The wind sensor of MEDA is allowing near-surface wind patterns to be characterized at Perseverance’s landing site, thus complementing the data acquired by previous missions on the surface of Mars.</p><p>Previous missions at different locations on the Martian surface observed a contribution by several mechanisms from different scales involved in the near-surface winds, including the effect of local and regional slope winds induced by topography, thermal tides, baroclinic waves and the Hadley cell, each one with a variable weight on the resulting wind patterns as a function of location, season and the presence of dust storms (e.g. [2-4] and references therein). The near-surface wind data acquired by Mars 2020 show a complex dynamics at Jezero Crater, as predicted by models (e.g. [5]). Preliminary interpretation suggests that the diurnal cycle of winds is dominated by the regional circulation mainly forced by slope winds in the Isidis basin region, which interact with the local scale circulation at Jezero and Hadley cell flows. The potential contribution by these mechanisms on the resulting wind patterns measured at Mars2020’s landing site will be presented, with a further focus on the observed wind variability supported by probabilistic models.</p><p> </p><p>References:</p><p>[1] Rodriguez-Manfredi et al. (2021), SSR, 217(48). [2] Viúdez-Moreiras et al. (2019), Icarus, 319, 909-925. [3] Banfield et al. (2020), Nat.Geo, 13, 190-198. [4] Viúdez-Moreiras et al. (2020) JGR-Planets, 125, e2020JE006493. [5] Newman et al. (2021) SSR, 217(20).</p>

Acoustics Reveals Short‐Term Air Temperature Fluctuations Near Mars' Surface

“…Furthermore, one must consider that while the acoustic measurement is quasi‐instantaneous, it is integrated along the propagation path of several meters, and thus any sound speed fluctuations on length scales smaller than that are not resolved. For typical wind speeds of 5–10 m/s (Viúdez‐Moreiras et al., 2022) and typical propagation paths of 2–5 m the volume of atmosphere that is being sampled by the acoustic pulse is exchanged on timescales of 0.2–1 s.…”

Planetary Waves Traveling Between Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020

“…Data up to M2020 mission sol 315 are presented, for a total of ∼285 sols from L s = ∼19–155°. The first 30 sols of mission data are excluded due to large gaps in temporal coverage as the regular mission observation cadence initiated and the lack of wind measurements over this period (Newman et al., 2022; Viúdez‐Moreiras et al., 2022), and data after sol 315 are only used in the filtering methodology. MEDA measures in blocks of 1 hr starting at odd hours on odd sols and on even hours on even sols so that each full hour is covered every two sols.…”