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- Title
The Aeolian Environment of the Landing Site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover in Oxia Planum, Mars.
- Authors
Favaro, E. A.; Balme, M. R.; Davis, J. M.; Grindrod, P. M.; Fawdon, P.; Barrett, A. M.; Lewis, S. R.
- Abstract
Aeolian features at Oxia Planum—the 2023 landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover (ERFR)—are important for Mars exploration because they record information about past and current wind regimes, sand transport vectors, and lend insight to the abrasion, deposition, and transport of granular material. To characterize the wind regime and erosional history of Oxia Planum we used a combination of manual observational and machine‐learning techniques to analyze the morphometrics, distribution, and orientation of 10,753 aeolian bedforms (Transverse Aeolian Ridges[TARs]) and landforms (Periodic Bedrock Ridges [PBRs]) around the ERFR landing ellipses. We found that, irrespective of the scale of the TARs, crestline azimuths are consistent across the study area and we infer that the bedform forming winds blew from NW‐NNW toward SE‐SSE. PBR azimuths show a substantively different orientation to the aeolian bedforms, and we infer that the winds necessary to abrade PBRs had a N‐NNE or S‐SSE orientation (180° ambiguity). From observations of active dust devils and windstreaks from repeat imagery, we infer a W‐WNW or E‐ESE (180° ambiguity) wind dominates today. Finally, we compare the inferred wind direction results from the aeolian landscape to modeled wind data from Mars Global Circulation Models. We note that, despite landscape evidence to the contrary, modeled contemporary wind direction lacks the consistent directionality to be responsible for the orientation of aeolian features in Oxia Planum. These results characterize aeolian features ERFR will encounter and suggests multiple wind regimes have influenced the surficial expression of the landing site. Plain Language Summary: Aeolian features like granular ripples and bedrock ridges provide important information about the wind regime in areas that lack long‐term monitoring. Such is the case for Mars, and especially for Oxia Planum—the 2023 landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover. This study examined the morphologies, distributions, and orientations of 10,753 ripples and ridges to understand the wind history at the landing site. We found that winds would have had to originate from substantively different directions to form the bedrock ridges than would be necessary to form the granular ripples. We also investigated contemporary wind signals with dust devils, dust devil tracks, and windstreaks, and found they too have a substantively different formative wind direction than the ripples and ridges. Modeled winds for the study area suggest contemporary winds lack the strength and directionally to be responsible for dust devils and windstreaks, suggesting at least two different wind epochs affected the region, and that current winds are not responsible for the expression of granular ripples or bedrock ridges. Our results help constrain the wind climate at the Oxia Planum landing site and suggest multiple wind regimes have affected the landing site. Key Points: Multiple wind regimes have influenced the surficial expression of Oxia PlanumTransverse aeolian ridges (TARs), periodic bedrock ridges, dust devils, and windstreaks were used to determine formative wind directionsLandscape evidence and climate modeling suggest contemporary winds lack the necessary strength to mobilize TAR‐forming materials
- Subjects
MARS landing sites; MARTIAN exploration; CURIOSITY (Spacecraft); SPACE flight to Mars; EXOBIOLOGY on Mars program (European Space Agency)
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets, 2021, Vol 126, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
2169-9097
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2020JE006723