Meteorological Predictions of the 2003 Mars Mission Using a Mesoscale Model

Details Meteorological Predictions of the 2003 Mars Mission Using a Mesoscale Model Meteorological Predictions of the 2003 Mars Mission Using a Mesoscale Model

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p31a0537r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P31A-0537

Mathematics

Logic

0300 Atmospheric Composition And Structure, 0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707), 3329 Mesoscale Meteorology, 5409 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics, 5445 Meteorology (3346)

Scientific paper

The Mars Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (MRAMS) is used to simulate the local meteorological conditions for several of the proposed 2003 Mars landing sites. MRAMS is initialized with and receives boundary conditions from the NASA Ames Research Center general circulation model. Topography and thermal inertia data are obtained from MOLA and TES, respectively. The simulation is configured with multiple nested grids. The outermost grid spacing is approximately 240 km and the domain covers approximately one quarter of the planet. The innermost grid spacing is approximately 5 km, and covers an area sufficient to model the area enclosed by the landing ellipse. Preliminary results indicate the atmospheric conditions at the two highest priority landing sites-hematite and Gusev crater-are marginally within acceptable limits for the parachute and rocket assisted descent. However, both sites experience strong winds just above the surface for most of the night and early morning. These winds subside during the early afternoon before intense convection makes the atmosphere highly turbulent. Locations near complex topography, particularly the inflow channel at the south end of Gusev crater, are susceptible to strong thermal circulations and topographic channeling of the winds especially during the nighttime hours. The most calm conditions are found at the very center of Gusev crater where the surface is sheltered by the crater rim, and where a stagnation point of the diurnal thermal circulation is present.

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