The atmosphere of Mars as observed by InSight

Don Banfield (1) , Aymeric Spiga (2) , Claire Newman (3) , François Forget (2) , Mark Lemmon (4) , Ralph Lorenz (5) , Naomi Murdoch (6) , Daniel Viudez-Moreiras (7) , Jorge Pla-Garcia (7, 4) , Raphaël Garcia (6) , Philippe Lognonné (8, 9) , Özgür Karatekin (10) , Clement Perrin (8) , Léo Martire (6) , Nicholas Teanby (11) , Bart Van Hove (10) , Justin Maki (12) , Balthasar Kenda (8) , Nils Mueller (13) , Sébastien Rodriguez (8, 9) , Taichi Kawamura (8) , John Mcclean (14) , Alexander Stott (14) , Constantinos Charalambous (14) , Ehouarn Millour (2) , Catherine Johnson (15) , Anna Mittelholz (15) , Anni Määttänen (16) , Stephen Lewis (17) , John Clinton (18) , Simon C Stähler (19) , Savas Ceylan (19) , Domenico Giardini (19) , Tristram Warren (20) , William Pike (14) , Ingrid Daubar (21) , Matthew Golombek (12) , Lucie M Rolland (22) , Rudolf Widmer-Schnidrig (23) , David Mimoun (6) , Eric Beucler (24) , Alice Jacob (8) , Antoine Lucas (8) , Mariah Baker (25, 26) , Veronique Ansan (24) , Kenneth Hurst (12) , Luis Mora-Sotomayor (7) , Sara Navarro (7) , Josefina Torres (7) , Alain Lepinette (7) , Antonio A. Molina (7) , Mercedes Marin-Jimenez (7) , Javier Gómez-Elvira (7) , Veronica Peinado (7) , Jose-Antonio Rodriguez-Manfredi (7) , Brian Carcich (1) , Stephen Sackett (1) , Christopher Russell (27) , Tilman Spohn (13) , Suzanne Smrekar (12) , W. Bruce Banerdt (12)

1 CCAPS - Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science
2 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
3 Aeolis Research
4 SSI - Space Science Institute [Boulder]
5 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
6 ISAE-SUPAERO - Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
7 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
8 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
9 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
10 ROB - Royal Observatory of Belgium [Brussels]
11 School of Earth Sciences [Bristol]
12 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
13 DLR Institut für Planetenforschung
14 DEEE - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering [London]
15 UBC EOAS - Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences [Vancouver]
16 PLANETO - LATMOS
17 School of Physical Sciences [Milton Keynes]
18 SED - Swiss Seismological Service [ETH Zurich]
19 Institute of Geophysics [ETH Zürich]
20 Department of Physics [Oxford]
21 Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences [Providence]
22 GEOAZUR 7329 - Géoazur
23 Universität Stuttgart [Stuttgart]
24 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]
25 Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [Baltimore]
26 CEPS - Center for Earth and Planetary Studies [Washington]
27 EPSS - Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences [Los Angeles]

The atmosphere of Mars is thin, although rich in dust aerosols, and covers a dry surface. As such, Mars provides an opportunity to expand our knowledge of atmospheres beyond that attainable from the atmosphere of the Earth. The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander is measuring Mars’s atmosphere with unprecedented continuity, accuracy and sampling frequency. Here we show that InSight unveils new atmospheric phenomena at Mars, especially in the higher-frequency range, and extends our understanding of Mars’s meteorology at all scales. InSight is uniquely sensitive to large-scale and regional weather and obtained detailed in situ coverage of a regional dust storm on Mars. Images have enabled high-altitude wind speeds to be measured and revealed airglow—faint emissions produced by photochemical reactions—in the middle atmosphere. InSight observations show a paradox of aeolian science on Mars: despite having the largest recorded Martian vortex activity and dust-devil tracks close to the lander, no visible dust devils have been seen. Meteorological measurements have produced a catalogue of atmospheric gravity waves, which included bores (soliton-like waves). From these measurements, we have discovered Martian infrasound and unexpected similarities between atmospheric turbulence on Earth and Mars. We suggest that the observations of Mars’s atmosphere by InSight will be key for prediction capabilities and future exploration.

Keywords: Mars; InSight; Atmosphere

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Don Banfield, Aymeric Spiga, Claire Newman, François Forget, Mark Lemmon, et al.. The atmosphere of Mars as observed by InSight. Nature Geoscience, 2020, 13 (3), pp.190-198. ⟨10.1038/s41561-020-0534-0⟩. ⟨hal-02641370v2⟩