Gusev crater: direction of active winds derived from the Mars Exploration Rover Rock Abrasion Tool

Details Gusev crater: direction of active winds derived from the Mars Exploration Rover Rock Abrasion Tool Gusev crater: direction of active winds derived from the Mars Exploration Rover Rock Abrasion Tool

May 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agusm.p33b..06g&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2004, abstract #P33B-06

Other

5409 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics, 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 6225 Mars, 6297 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

The Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) are not instrumented to measure winds directly, but might be able to give insight into wind directions using other techniques. The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD) on the Mars rover, Spirit, was used to remove dust and cut into a basaltic rock named Adirondack in Gusev crater on Sol 34 of mission operations. The rock abrasion operation occurred between about 1223 hr and 1518 hr in the afternoon (local solar time) and left a cavity 2.68 mm deep. An image taken after the abrasion operation showed that the rock cuttings were asymmetrically distributed around the cavity and over the rock in a direction suggesting that the cuttings were transported away from the cavity by winds. The distribution pattern (and the inferred wind) is being compared with results from wind tunnel simulations conducted prior to the mission to assess the wind-flow patterns as a function of rock, rover, and IDD positions with respect to the wind. The wind direction inferred from the RAT cuttings are also being compared with wind directions suggested by aeolian bedforms and albedo patterns seen from MER and from orbit, and with directions predicted by a model of the atmosphere for winds at mid-day in Gusev crater.

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