Zonal Winds at Reference Altitudes From MGS Aerobraking Data

Details Zonal Winds at Reference Altitudes From MGS Aerobraking Data Zonal Winds at Reference Altitudes From MGS Aerobraking Data

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p23a0038b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P23A-0038

Other

0300 Atmospheric Composition And Structure, 0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704), 5210 Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes (0343)

Scientific paper

The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft used aerobraking to reduce the orbit period from 45 hours to 2 hours. Numerous controlled passes through the upper atmosphere slowed the spacecraft, thereby reducing the orbital period and eccentricity. The spacecraft was longitudinally, aerodynamically stable in pitch and yaw. The MGS orbit is nearly polar, so the yaw orientation of the spacecraft was sensitive to disturbances caused by the zonal (cross-track) winds acting on the spacecraft at aerobraking altitudes. Aerodynamic and inertia-related (internal) torques acting on the spacecraft were equated to calculate the wind velocities. Complications to an otherwise straightforward process resulted from a fractured, flapping solar array. The spacecraft center of mass and the atmospheric super rotation were solved simultaneously over batches of orbits using a least squares process. Holding the spacecraft center of mass constant over each batch and knowing the Mars rotation rate, super rotation was converted to wind speed. In previous work we have shown wind velocities at periapsis altitudes. In this work zonal winds at reference altitudes of 120 km and 130 km have been derived, including winds during the 1997 Noachis dust storm. Latitudinal, longitudinal, and seasonal effects have been analyzed. The results provide an in-situ set of measurements that can be used to constrain Mars thermospheric wind models.

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