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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2021

First results of the Perseverance environmental stations (MEDAs) Relative Humidity Sensor

Résumé

The Perseverance Rover has an instrument to measure the environmental conditions near the rover, including the surface and near-surface atmosphere, called MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer). MEDA is a suite of instruments including a relative humidity sensor. The MEDA relative humidity sensor (HS) represents the third time that relative humidity has been measured from the surface of Mars. Near-surface relative humidity measurements on diurnal and seasonal time scales are important for understanding the distribution of water in the Martian atmosphere, the likelihood of stable, near-surface ice or brines, and the general modern habitability potential of the local environment. In combination with independent measurements by the Perseverance SuperCam or TIRS instruments, measurements of relative humidity can be used to detect frost formation or temperature-dependent adsorption, to check whether the environmental conditions at the surface and in the near surface are compatible with the formation of liquid brines, and to assess diurnal changes in the near-surface water content, possibly due to subsurface exchange, local meteorology events or consistent with surface frost or adsorption. In addition, documenting the humidity at the time samples are acquired and cached for future return to earth will be critical to interpreting returned samples. The MEDA HS heads are Humicap® by Vaisala, Inc., similar to that flown on Curiosity. Humicap® contains an active polymer that changes the sensor head capacitance as a function of relative humidity and temperature with 0 to 100% RH measurement range. Improvements from the Curiosity rover version have been made to enable a more rapid response to the environment and to have a wider dynamic range, allowing for better resolution in the measurements. In addition, operationally, the highest accuracy mode can be used every 5 minutes on Perseverance, instead of every 15 min on Curiosity. The current calibration status of the RH sensor will be presented, along with the first results of daily and seasonal relative humidity behavior at Jezero crater.
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Dates et versions

insu-04495669 , version 1 (08-03-2024)

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Leslie Tamppari, Maria Hieta, J. Polkko, Maria Genzer, Erik Fischer, et al.. First results of the Perseverance environmental stations (MEDAs) Relative Humidity Sensor. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, Dec 2021, New Orleans, United States. pp.id. P25I-2253. ⟨insu-04495669⟩
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