Convective Vortices and Dust Devils Detected and Characterized by Mars 2020

Key Points Vortices and dust devils (DDs) are frequent on Jezero. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer detects 5.0 and 1.0 events per sol respectively when correcting from sampling effects Intense vortices on Jezero tend to be dusty with 75% of all vortices with a pressure drop larger than 2.0 Pa be...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hueso, R., Newman, C. E., Del Río Gaztelurrutia, T., Munguira, A., Sánchez Lavega, Agustín, Toledo, D., Lemmon, M. T., Lorenz, Ralph, Richardson, M. I., Viúdez Moreiras, Daniel, De la Torre Juárez, M., Rodríguez Manfredi, J. A., Tamppari, L. K., Murdoch, N., Navarro López, Sara, Gómez Elvira, J., Baker, M., Pla García, J., Harri, Ari-Matti, Hieta, M., Genzer, María, Polkko, J., Jaakonaho, I., Makinen, Terhi, Stott, Alexander, Mimoun, D., Chide, B., Sebastián Martínez, Eduardo, Banfield, D., Lepinette Malvitte, A., Apéstigue, Víctor, Arruego, Ignacio, Vicente Retortillo, Álvaro, Martínez, Germán M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.INTA Repositorio Digital del Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.inta.es:20.500.12666/883
Acceso en línea:https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JE007516
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12666/883
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:MEDA
Descripción
Sumario:Key Points Vortices and dust devils (DDs) are frequent on Jezero. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer detects 5.0 and 1.0 events per sol respectively when correcting from sampling effects Intense vortices on Jezero tend to be dusty with 75% of all vortices with a pressure drop larger than 2.0 Pa being dusty We calculate 2.5 and 0.1 DDs km−2sol−1 with sizes of 20 and 100 m respectively. The largest events dominate dust lifting Plain Language Summary Dust devils (DDs) are whirlwinds of warm air with winds strong enough to lift dust. They are common in Earth deserts and much more abundant on Mars, where they are one of the elements that bring dust to the atmosphere. The Mars 2020 mission landed in Jezero crater on February 2020 and has observed a plethora of DDs that we investigate with the meteorological sensors on the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument. Results for more than 400 Martian days from spring to autumn indicate a high abundance of events with small seasonal variability. Terrains with lower thermal inertia, warming more efficiently at noon, favor the appearance of DDs. We also found an increased DD activity during a short dust storm that covered the region. From modeling MEDA data, we find that DDs at Jezero have diameters from 5.0 to 135 m. We estimate that about 2–3 DDs are formed per km2 and Martian day. Large vortices with diameters of 100 m form frequently enough to dominate dust lifting at Jezero. Two DDs damaged part of the hardware of the wind sensors of MEDA and we detail the characteristics of those events.

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