Monitoring of Dust Devil Tracks Around the InSight Landing Site, Mars, and Comparison With In Situ Atmospheric Data

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • C. Perrin
  • S. Rodriguez
  • A. Jacob
  • A. Lucas
  • A. Spiga
  • N. Murdoch
  • R. Lorenz
  • I. J. Daubar
  • Pan, Lu
  • T. Kawamura
  • P. Lognonné
  • D. Banfield
  • M. E. Banks
  • R. F. Garcia
  • C. E. Newman
  • L. Ohja
  • R. Widmer-Schnidrig
  • A. S. McEwen
  • W. B. Banerdt

The NASA InSight mission on Mars is a unique opportunity to study atmospheric processes both from orbit and in situ observations. We use post-landing high-resolution satellite images to monitor dust devil activity during the first 8 months of the mission. We perform mapping and semiautomatic detection of newly formed dust devil tracks and analyze their characteristics (sizes, azimuths, distances, and directions of motion). We find a large number of tracks appearing shortly after landing, followed by a significant decrease of activity during late winter, then a progressive increase during early spring. New tracks are characterized by dark linear, to slightly curvilinear, traces ranging from a few to more than 10 m wide. Tracks are oriented in the ambient wind direction, according to measurements made by InSight's meteorological sensors. The systematic analysis of dust devil tracks is useful to have a better understanding of atmospheric and aeolian activity around InSight.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2020GL087234
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume47
Issue number10
ISSN0094-8276
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 May 2020
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • dust devil tracks, HiRISE images, InSight mission, Mars

ID: 251602261