Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 – 23 September 2022
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 September – 23 September 2022
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 16, EPSC2022-573, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-573
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Dust Devil frequency of occurrence at Jezero crater and radiative effects as derived by MEDA-RDS

Victor Apestique1, Daniel Toledo1, Ignacio Arruego1, and the MEDA and ATM team*
Victor Apestique et al.
  • 1National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Torrejón de Ardoz. Madrid. Spain.(apestiguepv@inta.es)
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

The dust cycle dominates Mars's meteorology. Studying the dust injection into the atmosphere is crucial to understanding and modeling the planet's climate. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) [1], on board the Perseverance rover, is a meteorological station than has been operating on Mars's surface for more than 400 sols [2]. One of the main goals of MEDA is to study the Mars dust cycle, and for this purpose, it includes the Radiation and Dust Sensor (RDS) [3], among other instruments. This instrument contains two different sensing technologies for dust characterization: a CCD camera looking at the sky and a radiometer based on silicon detectors arranged in different orientations. As a result of the RDS field of view, the number of sensors, and low power consumption and data volume, this sensor is capable of detecting and characterizing dust lifting events such as dust devils for extended periods (of hours) and at a high sampling frequency (1 Hz). Moreover, for the cases with multiple RDS detections and wind sensor observations, the trajectory and dust devil geometry can be derived.

In this work, we have estimated for the first 365 sols: i) the number of dust devils formed at Jezero (expressed in number per area and unit of time); ii) the dust devil impact on the irradiance levels on the surface at different wavelength ranges (e.g. UV or 190-1200 nm ranges); iii) the dust devil spatial distribution along the rover traverse; and iv) the dust devil geometry (diameter and altitude) and trajectory for some of the events. For these analyses, we made used of radiative transfer and Monte-Carlo trajectory simulations. We will also discuss the implications of these results on the Mars dust cycle.    

[1] Rodriguez-Manfredi, J. A., et al. (2021). The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, MEDA. A suite of environmental sensors for the Mars 2020 mission. Space science reviews, 217(3), 1-86.

[2] Newman, C.E. et al. The dynamic atmospheric and aeolian environment of Jezero crater, Mars, Science Advances (in press).

[3] Apestigue, V. et al. Radiation and Dust Sensor for Mars Environmental Dynamic Analyzer Onboard M2020 Rover. Sensors, 22, 2907 (2022). doi:10.3390/s22082907

MEDA and ATM team:

V. Apéstigue1, D. Toledo1, I. Arruego1, R. Hueso2, M. Lemmon3, C. Newman4, L. Gómez1, I. Carrasco1, M. Smith5, D. Viudez-Moreiras1,6, G. Martínez7, R. Lorenz8, Vicente-Retortillo1,6, A. Sanchez-Lavega2, M. de la Torre Juarez9, J.A. Rodriguez-Manfredi1,6, A. de F. Montoro1, M. Yela1, J.J. Jimenez1, E. García-Menendez1, S. Navarro1,6, F.J. Gomez-Elvira1, A.-M. Harri10, J. Polkko10, M. Hieta10, M. Genzer10, N. Murdoch11, E. Sebastian1,6. 1. Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial. Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. 2. Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain. 3. Space Science Institute, Boulder,CO, USA. 4. Aeolis Research, Chandler, AZ, USA 5. NASA Godard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. 6. Centro de Atrobiología (INTA-CSIC). Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. 7. Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX, USA. 8. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA 9. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. 10. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland 11. Institut Supérieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

How to cite: Apestique, V., Toledo, D., and Arruego, I. and the MEDA and ATM team: Dust Devil frequency of occurrence at Jezero crater and radiative effects as derived by MEDA-RDS, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-573, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-573, 2022.

Discussion

We are sorry, but the discussion is only available for users who registered for the conference. Thank you.