HR: 16:15h
AN: P24A-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Local and Regional Meteorology of the MERs' Environment as Simulated by a Mesoscale Model
AU: * Rafkin, S C
EM: rafkin@boulder.swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302 United States
AU: Michaels, T I
EM: tmichael@boulder.swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 400, Boulder, CO 80302 United States
AB: The Mars Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (MRAMS) was used to assess local atmospheric hazards during the MER landing site selection process, and, later used to plan for entry, descent, and landing (EDL) at Meridian Plenum and Gusev Crater. A comparison of MRAMS predictions to observed and inferred conditions during EDL and subsequent surface operations is presented. Data to properly validate the model is lackcing. However, qualitatively, the MRAMS predictions are shown to be accurate, including the identification of a superadiabatic and turbulent boundary layer observed by Mini-TES, and low-level wind shear at Gusev Crater, particularly over the rims, as inferred by EDL descent data. A high dust loading scenario, although anticipated as a possibility, was not modeled due primarily to computing resource limitations. However, a regional dust storm just prior to arrival at Mars sent visible dust opacities to near unity at each of the landing sites. Results of MRAMS simulations at these higher opacities conducted post-landing are presented and compared to the previous lower dust loading results and to observations. Finally, follow-up MRAMS simulations that look at the seasonality of local circulations and their relationship to aeolian features observed in Gusev Crater are presented.
UR: http://boulder.swri.edu/~rafkin
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707)
DE: 3300 METEOROLOGY AND ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS
DE: 3337 Numerical modeling and data assimilation
DE: 5707 Atmospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 6225 Mars
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly