Winds at the Mars 2020 Landing Site. 2. Wind Variability and Turbulence.

Wind speeds measured by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover in Jezero crater were fitted as a Weibull distribution. InSight wind data acquired in Elysium Planitia were also used to contextualize observations. Jezero winds were found to be much calmer on average than in previous landing sites, despite the intense aeolian activity observed. However, a great influence of turbulence and wave activity was observed in the wind speed variations, thus driving the probability of reaching the highest wind speeds at Jezero, instead of sustained winds driven by local, regional, or large-scale circulation. The power spectral density of wind speed fluctuations follows a power-law, whose slope deviates depending on the time of day from that predicted considering homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Daytime wave activity is related to convection cells and smaller eddies in the boundary layer, advected over the crater. The signature of convection cells was also found during dust storm conditions, when prevailing winds were consistent with a tidal drive. Nighttime fluctuations were also intense, suggesting strong mechanical turbulence. Convective vortices were usually involved in rapid wind fluctuations and extreme winds, with variations peaking at 9.2 times the background winds. Transient high wind events by vortex-passages, turbulence, and wave activity could be driving aeolian activity at Jezero. We report the detection of a strong dust cloud of 0.75-1.5 km in length passing over the rover. The observed aeolian activity had major implications for instrumentation, with the wind sensor suffering damage throughout the mission, probably due to flying debris advected by winds.

Mars Methane Sources in Northwestern Gale Crater Inferred From Back Trajectory Modeling.

During its first seven years of operation, the Sample Analysis at Mars Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) on board the Curiosity rover has detected seven methane spikes above a low background abundance in Gale crater. The methane spikes are likely sourced by surface emission within or around Gale crater. Here, we use inverse Lagrangian modeling techniques to identify upstream emission regions on the Martian surface for these methane spikes at an unprecedented spatial resolution. Inside Gale crater, the northwestern crater floor casts the strongest influence on the detections. Outside Gale crater, the upstream regions common to all the methane spikes extend toward the north. The contrasting results from two consecutive TLS methane measurements performed on the same sol point to an active emission site to the west or the southwest of the Curiosity rover on the northwestern crater floor. The observed spike magnitude and frequency also favor emission sites on the northwestern crater floor, unless there are fast methane removal mechanisms at work, or either the methane spikes of TLS or the non-detections of ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter cannot be trusted.

The Vertical Dust Profile over Gale Crater, Mars.

We create a vertically coarse, but complete, vertical profile of dust mixing ratio from the surface to the upper atmosphere over Gale Crater, Mars, using the frequent joint atmospheric observations of the orbiting Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. Using these data and an estimate of planetary boundary layer (PBL) depth from the MarsWRF general circulation model, we divide the vertical column into three regions. The first region is the Gale Crater PBL, the second is the MCS-sampled region, and the third is between these first two. We solve for a well-mixed dust mixing ratio within this third (middle) layer of atmosphere to complete the profile. We identify a unique seasonal cycle of dust within each atmospheric layer. Within the Gale PBL, dust mixing ratio maximizes near southern hemisphere summer solstice (Ls = 270°) and minimizes near winter solstice (Ls = 90-100°) with a smooth sinusoidal transition between them. However, the layer above Gale Crater and below the MCS-sampled region more closely follows the global opacity cycle and has a maximum in opacity near Ls = 240° and exhibits a local minimum (associated with the "solsticial pause" in dust storm activity) near Ls = 270°. With knowledge of the complete vertical dust profile, we can also assess the frequency of high-altitude dust layers over Gale. We determine that 36% of MCS profiles near Gale Crater contain an "absolute" high-altitude dust layer wherein the dust mixing ratio is the maximum in the entire vertical column.

Large wind ripples on Mars: A record of atmospheric evolution.

Wind blowing over sand on Earth produces decimeter-wavelength ripples and hundred-meter- to kilometer-wavelength dunes: bedforms of two distinct size modes. Observations from the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that Mars hosts a third stable wind-driven bedform, with meter-scale wavelengths. These bedforms are spatially uniform in size and typically have asymmetric profiles with angle-of-repose lee slopes and sinuous crest lines, making them unlike terrestrial wind ripples. Rather, these structures resemble fluid-drag ripples, which on Earth include water-worked current ripples, but on Mars instead form by wind because of the higher kinematic viscosity of the low-density atmosphere. A reevaluation of the wind-deposited strata in the Burns formation (about 3.7 billion years old or younger) identifies potential wind-drag ripple stratification formed under a thin atmosphere.

Deposition, exhumation, and paleoclimate of an ancient lake deposit, Gale crater, Mars.

The landforms of northern Gale crater on Mars expose thick sequences of sedimentary rocks. Based on images obtained by the Curiosity rover, we interpret these outcrops as evidence for past fluvial, deltaic, and lacustrine environments. Degradation of the crater wall and rim probably supplied these sediments, which advanced inward from the wall, infilling both the crater and an internal lake basin to a thickness of at least 75 meters. This intracrater lake system probably existed intermittently for thousands to millions of years, implying a relatively wet climate that supplied moisture to the crater rim and transported sediment via streams into the lake basin. The deposits in Gale crater were then exhumed, probably by wind-driven erosion, creating Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp).

Mars Science Laboratory relative humidity observations: Initial results.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) made a successful landing at Gale crater early August 2012. MSL has an environmental instrument package called the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) as a part of its scientific payload. REMS comprises instrumentation for the observation of atmospheric pressure, temperature of the air, ground temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity (REMS-H), and UV measurements. We concentrate on describing the REMS-H measurement performance and initial observations during the first 100 MSL sols as well as constraining the REMS-H results by comparing them with earlier observations and modeling results. The REMS-H device is based on polymeric capacitive humidity sensors developed by Vaisala Inc., and it makes use of transducer electronics section placed in the vicinity of the three humidity sensor heads. The humidity device is mounted on the REMS boom providing ventilation with the ambient atmosphere through a filter protecting the device from airborne dust. The final relative humidity results appear to be convincing and are aligned with earlier indirect observations of the total atmospheric precipitable water content. The water mixing ratio in the atmospheric surface layer appears to vary between 30 and 75 ppm. When assuming uniform mixing, the precipitable water content of the atmosphere is ranging from a few to six precipitable micrometers. KEY POINTS: Atmospheric water mixing ratio at Gale crater varies from 30 to 140 ppmMSL relative humidity observation provides good dataHighest detected relative humidity reading during first MSL 100 sols is RH75.

Soil diversity and hydration as observed by ChemCam at Gale crater, Mars.

The ChemCam instrument, which provides insight into martian soil chemistry at the submillimeter scale, identified two principal soil types along the Curiosity rover traverse: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type. The mafic soil component is representative of widespread martian soils and is similar in composition to the martian dust. It possesses a ubiquitous hydrogen signature in ChemCam spectra, corresponding to the hydration of the amorphous phases found in the soil by the CheMin instrument. This hydration likely accounts for an important fraction of the global hydration of the surface seen by previous orbital measurements. ChemCam analyses did not reveal any significant exchange of water vapor between the regolith and the atmosphere. These observations provide constraints on the nature of the amorphous phases and their hydration.

Influence of carbon dioxide clouds on early martian climate.

Recent studies have shown that clouds made of carbon dioxide ice may have warmed the surface of early Mars by reflecting not only incoming solar radiation but upwelling IR radiation as well. However, these studies have not treated scattering self-consistently in the thermal IR. Our own calculations, which treat IR scattering properly, confirm these earlier calculations but show that CO2 clouds can also cool the surface, especially if they are low and optically thick. Estimating the actual effect of CO2 clouds on early martian climate will require three-dimensional models in which cloud location, height, and optical depth, as well as surface temperature and pressure, are determined self-consistently. Our calculations further confirm that CO2 clouds should extend the outer boundary of the habitable zone around a star but that there is still a finite limit beyond which above-freezing surface temperatures cannot be maintained by a CO2-H2O atmosphere. For our own Solar System, the absolute outer edge of the habitable zone is at approximately 2.4 AU.