Upcoming Emirates Mars Mission Dust Storm Research and Related Model Simulations by the Interactive-Dust-Lifting-Technique

Mars dust storms are an interdisciplinary field of research. They have adverse effects for the entry-descent-landing operations of spacecraft, the energy production by the solar panels of Mars rovers and landers, and others. A dramatic example is the loss of the Mars rover Opportunity during a global dust storm event in 2018. As can be foreseen, dust storms also have implications for future human exploration of Mars. Dust storm research is directly aligned with the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) science objective on the lower atmosphere, and also to the objective of correlating the lower and upper atmosphere [1]. This presentation outlines dust storm research related to EMM. Owing to its high altitude orbit, its instrumentation will provide snapshots of the Mars atmosphere and surface at a near-hemispheric view. Moreover, EMM will provide situational information on Mars dust storms each few hours. EMM entered Mars orbit on Feb. 9th, 2021 (Ls ~0). The EMM Science Phase officially commenced on May 23rd, 2021 (Ls ~49). As follows, the early EMM Science Phase coincides with the Low Dust Loading Season (LS ~0-140), known for the sparsity of dust storms at low-to-mid latitudes. We will use initial EMM data products for feasibility demonstration. If available, this shall include early stage EMM dust storm observations. In support of this, we also give an update on dust storm model simulations and follow-on work. These simulations are based on running the MarsWRF model, using the interactive-dust-technique. This means that the model produces dust storms in a fully self-consistent manner, i.e. independent of any external data on the dust cycle. Recent work has been documented in [2,3]. [1] About EMM | Emirates Mars Mission [2] Gebhardt, C., Abuelgasim, A., Fonseca, R. M., Martín-Torres, J., & Zorzano, M.-P. (2020). Fully interactive and refined resolution simulations of the Martian dust cycle by the MarsWRF model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 125, e2019JE006253. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JE006253 [3] Gebhardt, C., Abuelgasim, A., Fonseca, R. M., Martín-Torres, J., & Zorzano, M.-P. (2021). Characterizing dust-radiation feedback and refining the horizontal resolution of the MarsWRF model down to 0.5 degree. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 126, e2020JE006672. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JE006672