TY - JOUR
T1 - Inferring Vortex and Dust Devil Statistics from InSight
AU - Jackson, Brian
AU - Crevier, Justin
AU - Szurgot, Michelle
AU - Battin, Ryan
AU - Perrin, Clément
AU - Rodriguez, Sébastien
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. The Author(s).
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - The InSight mission has operated on the surface of Mars for nearly two Earth years, returning detections of the first marsquakes. The lander also deployed a meteorological instrument package and cameras to monitor local surface activity. These instruments have detected boundary layer phenomena, including small-scale vortices. These vortices register as short-lived, negative pressure excursions and closely resemble those that could generate dust devils. Although our analysis shows that InSight encountered more than 900 vortices and collected more than 1000 images of the Martian surface, no active dust devils were imaged. In spite of the lack of dust devil detections, we can leverage the vortex detections and InSight's daily wind speed measurements to learn about the boundary layer processes that create dust devils. We discuss our analysis of InSight's meteorological data to assess the statistics of vortex and dust devil activity. We also infer encounter distances for the vortices and, therefrom, the maximum vortex wind speeds. Surveying the available imagery, we place upper limits on what fraction of vortices carry dust (i.e., how many are bona fide dust devils) and estimate threshold wind speeds for dust lifting. Comparing our results to detections of dust devil tracks seen in space-based observations of the InSight landing site, we can also infer thresholds and frequency of track formation by vortices. Comparing vortex encounters and parameters with advective wind speeds, we find evidence that high wind speeds at InSight may have suppressed the formation of dust devils, explaining the lack of imaged dust devils.
AB - The InSight mission has operated on the surface of Mars for nearly two Earth years, returning detections of the first marsquakes. The lander also deployed a meteorological instrument package and cameras to monitor local surface activity. These instruments have detected boundary layer phenomena, including small-scale vortices. These vortices register as short-lived, negative pressure excursions and closely resemble those that could generate dust devils. Although our analysis shows that InSight encountered more than 900 vortices and collected more than 1000 images of the Martian surface, no active dust devils were imaged. In spite of the lack of dust devil detections, we can leverage the vortex detections and InSight's daily wind speed measurements to learn about the boundary layer processes that create dust devils. We discuss our analysis of InSight's meteorological data to assess the statistics of vortex and dust devil activity. We also infer encounter distances for the vortices and, therefrom, the maximum vortex wind speeds. Surveying the available imagery, we place upper limits on what fraction of vortices carry dust (i.e., how many are bona fide dust devils) and estimate threshold wind speeds for dust lifting. Comparing our results to detections of dust devil tracks seen in space-based observations of the InSight landing site, we can also infer thresholds and frequency of track formation by vortices. Comparing vortex encounters and parameters with advective wind speeds, we find evidence that high wind speeds at InSight may have suppressed the formation of dust devils, explaining the lack of imaged dust devils.
KW - Mars
KW - planetary atmospheres
UR - https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/physics_facpubs/254
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118765564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/PSJ/ac260d
DO - 10.3847/PSJ/ac260d
M3 - Article
VL - 2
JO - Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations
JF - Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations
IS - 5
M1 - 206
ER -