Geology of the Insight Landing Site, Mars

Golombek, M.; Warner, N. H.; Hauber, Ernst; Ansan, V.; Weitz, C. M.; Williams, Nathan; Charalambous, Constantinos; Wilson, Sharon A.; Parker, T. J.; Daubar, I. J.; Marteau, E.; Mueller, N.; Piqueux, S.; Pike, W. T.; DeMott, A.; Kopp, M.; Lethcoe-Wilson, H.; Berger, Lauren; Hausmann, R. B.; Banks, M. E.; Baker, Mariah; Garvin, J. B.

doi:10.1130/abs/2019am-336461

Cited by 25 publications

(40 citation statements)

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“…In conclusion, whereas pressure waves are a good candidate for explaining the amplitude of the seismic signals and have been well‐modeled for large pressure drops (Banerdt et al., 2020; Kenda et al., 2020; Lognonne et al., 2020), they cannot explain the observed polarization, neither the horizontal polarization at LF, nor the inclined polarization in the vertical plane at HF. Possibly, local lateral heterogeneities, as for instance the Homestead hollow (Golombek et al., 2020), may explain this polarization but this has not been investigated here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…On November 26, 2018 InSight (Banerdt et al., 2020; Lognonne et al., 2019, 2020) landed on Mars. The lander is located in Elysium Planitia (Golombek et al., 2020), close to the equator (4.502°N, 135.623°E) in a flat area at an elevation of −2,613.4 m with respect to the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter geoid. The topography map (Figure 1, top) shows that the structure is flat around the station and toward the North and that the topography is higher with large craters toward the South.…”

Section: Insight Mission Seismic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The topography map (Figure 1, top) shows that the structure is flat around the station and toward the North and that the topography is higher with large craters toward the South. At the landing site, the topography is a gentle slope (less than 0.6°) down to the East (Golombek et al., 2020).…”

Section: Insight Mission Seismic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Polarization of Ambient Noise on Mars

et al. 2021

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HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Insight Mission Seismic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Polarization of Ambient Noise on Mars

et al. 2021

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“…For the adaptive LMS method, the horizontal compliance values obtained along the EW component are larger than along the NS component. This feature may be explained by the local subsurface variations induced by the hollow crater in which INSIGHT landed (about 3 m distance to the Western rim of a 27 m diameter crater, Golombek et al, 2020; Warner et al, 2019). The material inside the crater being softer than outside it, compliance values are expected to be larger in the Eastern direction than along North‐South direction.…”

Section: Results Of Pressure Decorrelation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressure Effects on the SEIS‐InSight Instrument, Improvement of Seismic Records, and Characterization of Long Period Atmospheric Waves From Ground Displacements

et al. 2020

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Mars atmospheric pressure variations induce ground displacements through elastic deformations. The various sensors of the InSight mission were designed in order to be able to understand and correct for these ground deformations induced by atmospheric effects. Particular efforts were made, on one hand, to avoid direct pressure and wind effects on the seismometer and, on the other hand, to have a high performance pressure sensor operating in the same frequency range as the seismometer. As a consequence of these technical achievements and the low background seismic noise of Mars, the InSight mission is opening a new science domain in which the ground displacements can be used to perform atmospheric science. This study presents an analysis of pressure and seismic signals and the relations between them. After a short description of the pressure and seismic sensors, we present an analysis of these signals as a function of local time at the InSight location. Then the coherent signals recorded by both pressure and seismic sensors are described and interpreted in terms of atmospheric signals and ground deformation processes. Two different methods to remove the pressure effects recorded by SEIS sensors are presented, and their efficiency is estimated and compared. These decorrelation methods allow the pressure generated noise to be reduced by a factor of 2 during the active day time period. Finally, an analysis of SEIS signals induced by gravity waves demonstrates the interest of ground displacement measurements to characterize their arrival azimuth.

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“…The top of the model is set at 10 km altitude (about twice the expected PBL depth) with 241 vertical levels. The surface temperature calculations in the model use a thermal inertia of 180 J m −2 K −1 s −1/2 and an albedo of 0.16, corresponding to the conditions encountered at the InSight landing site, based on the HP 3 radiometer far spot measurements considered to be representative of regional average conditions (Golombek et al., 2020). Radiative transfer computations assume the longitude and the latitude of the InSight landing site for the whole LES horizontal domain.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Daytime Convective Vortices and Turbulence in the Martian Planetary Boundary Layer Based on Half‐a‐Year of InSight Atmospheric Measurements and Large‐Eddy Simulations

et al. 2021

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Studying the atmospheric planetary boundary layer (PBL) is crucial to understand the climate of a planet. The meteorological measurements by the instruments onboard InSight at a latitude of 4.5°N make a unique rich data set to study the active turbulent dynamics of the daytime PBL on Mars. Here we use the high‐sensitivity continuous pressure, wind, and temperature measurements in the first 400 sols of InSight operations (from northern late winter to midsummer) to analyze wind gusts, convective cells, and vortices in Mars’ daytime PBL. We compare InSight measurements to turbulence‐resolving large‐eddy simulations (LES). The daytime PBL turbulence at the InSight landing site is very active, with clearly identified signatures of convective cells and a vast population of 6,000 recorded vortex encounters, adequately represented by a power law with a 3.4 exponent. While the daily variability of vortex encounters at InSight can be explained by the statistical nature of turbulence, the seasonal variability is positively correlated with ambient wind speed, which is supported by LES. However, wind gustiness is positively correlated to surface temperature rather than ambient wind speed and sensible heat flux, confirming the radiative control of the daytime Martian PBL; and fewer convective vortices are forming in LES when the background wind is doubled. Thus, the long‐term seasonal variability of vortex encounters at the InSight landing site is mainly controlled by the advection of convective vortices by ambient wind speed. Typical tracks followed by vortices forming in the LES show a similar distribution in direction and length as orbital imagery.

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Geology of the Insight Landing Site, Mars

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

The Polarization of Ambient Noise on Mars

The Polarization of Ambient Noise on Mars

Pressure Effects on the SEIS‐InSight Instrument, Improvement of Seismic Records, and Characterization of Long Period Atmospheric Waves From Ground Displacements

A Study of Daytime Convective Vortices and Turbulence in the Martian Planetary Boundary Layer Based on Half‐a‐Year of InSight Atmospheric Measurements and Large‐Eddy Simulations

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