MARSWRF Prediction of Entry Descent Landing Profiles: Applications to Mars Exploration

• Published in: Earth and Space Science
• Main Authors: Fonseca, Ricardo M., Zorzano, María Paz, Martín-Torres, F. J.
• Other Authors: European Commission
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2019
• Subjects: Mars; ExoMars; Atmosphere; Abisko
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/205526; https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EA000575; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780

In this paper we use the Mars implementation of the Planet Weather Research and Forecasting model, MarsWRF, to simulate the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) vertical profiles from six past missions: Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, and ExoMars 2016 (Schiaparelli), and compare the results with observed data. In order to investigate the sensitivity of the model predictions to the atmospheric dust distribution, MarsWRF is run with two prescribed dust scenarios. It is concluded that the MarsWRF EDL predictions can be used for guidance into the design and planning stage of future missions to the planet, as it generally captures the observed EDL profiles, although it has a tendency to underestimate the temperature and overestimate the density for heights above 15 km. This could be attributed to an incorrect representation of the observed dust loading. We have used the model to predict the EDL conditions that may be encountered by two future missions: ExoMars 2020 and Mars 2020. When run for Oxia Planum and Jezero Crater for the expected landing time, MarsWRF predicts a large sensitivity to the dust loading in particular for the horizontal wind speed above 10-15 km with maximum differences of up to ±30 m/s for the former and ±15 m/s for the latter site. For both sites, the best time for EDL, that is, when the wind speed is generally the weakest with smaller shifts in direction, is predicted to be in the late morning and early afternoon. We are grateful to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for making the EDL vertical profiles of past Mars missions available online through the Planetary Atmospheres Node of the PDS (http://pds‐atmospheres.nmsu.edu/). Alessio Aboudan from the University of Padova is also acknowledged for providing the reconstructed vertical profiles for the Schiaparelli EDL. The simulations presented in this paper were performed on resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at the High Performance Computing Center North (HPC2N) Abisko cluster. This work was partially funded by the European Research Foundation (ERF). We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer and Claire Newman for their many detailed and insightful comments and suggestions that helped to improve significantly the quality of the paper. The model data used to generate the figures presented in this paper can be obtained from the authors. We have uploaded the data to the following website (https://atmospheres.research.ltu.se/owncloud/index.php/s/PlZWyxd1T24vl16).