Initial results of the meteorological data from the first 325 sols of the Tianwen-1 mission

Abstract

As the Zhurong rover landed on the surface of Mars in 2021, it began a months-long collection of Mars data. Equipped with highly sensitive sensors, Zhurong is capable of being a meteorological station at the surface of Mars. The Mars Climate Station, one of the onboard sensors with high sensitivity, helps the Tianwen-1 lander to collect meteorological data at the Martian surface, via which the air temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction are measured. In this paper, we present results of surface pressure, air temperature and wind data from the Mars Climate Station at Zhurong’s landing site. The data is collected in 176 solar days out of the entire rover’s mission time, 325 solar days. We use a trigonometric function to fit the relationship between the solar longitude (Ls) and the pressure, after which we compare the results with those of Viking I. Our analysis of the temperature shows that seasonal evolution is similar to the patterns concluded in previous Mars missions at different landing sites. We discover that wind speed appears the maximum in early summer near Zhurong’s landing site, and analyze the occurrence of dust storms by combining the data of wind and temperature. Our results provide some evidence of the seasonal changes in meteorological pattern at Tianwen-1’s landing site, south of Utopia Planitia. With the mission ongoing further, more results are expected in the future.

Subsurface Water in Mars' Shallow Diluvium Deposits: Evidence from Tianwen-1 Radar Observations

“…The operational time of the RoPeR varies each sol, with each period lasting less than 30 minutes, and it consistently operates during daylight hours between 6:30 and 17:00 on Mars (Jiang et al, 2023). Radargrams depict relatively uniform signal intensity with no significant stratification , but only a few areas of strong vertical reflections on the pathway (highlighted in Fig.…”

“…Therefore, the best explanation for the radar detection results is that the shallow subsurface at the Tianwen-1 landing site consists of diluvium deposits containing water. During the Zhurong rover's operational period, between 6:30 and 17:00 on Mars (Jiang et al, 2023), the temperature in the subsurface can reach the eutectic point for brine ice, resulting in liquid brine formation (Chevrier and Altheide, 2008;Chevrier et al, 2009;Nair and Unnikrishnan, 2020;Thompson et al, 2016) (Fig. 3e-h).…”

“…Given the peculiarities of the Martian environment compared to Earth (such as differences in atmospheric pressure, gravity, and solar radiation, etc. ), we adjust the model parameters to apply it under conditions of no precipitation and no vegetation, focusing on the soil's thermal transfer and phase change processes (Jiang et al, 2023;Smith et al, 1999;Vicente-Retortillo et al, 2015). Given that the physical processes and principles underlying the SHAW model are universally applicable, it is feasible to apply an adapted version of the SHAW model to Mars with adjusted parameters.…”

One Martian Year of Near‐Surface Temperatures at Jezero From MEDA Measurements on Mars2020/Perseverance

“…For instance, Martínez et al (2017) conducted a comprehensive review of in situ meteorological data collected from Mars, including temperature data, covering the landed missions on Mars from the Viking Landers (1970s) to the Curiosity rover in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission (landed in 2012 and still active). Recent surface missions such as Insight (Banfield et al, 2020) and Zhurong (Jiang et al, 2023) have also obtained air temperature measurements. Some of these missions have operated long enough to study the inter-annual variability at their specific locations (one Martian Year, MY, equals 687 Earth days).…”