The Preliminary Study of Dust Devil Tracks in Southern Utopia Planitia, Landing Area of Tianwen-1 Mission

Abstract

China’s first Mars exploration mission (Tianwen-1) landed on the southern part of Mars’ Utopia Planitia on 15 May 2021. The Zhurong rover will focus on high-resolution and in situ observations of key areas on the surface of Mars. Dust devils (DDs) are heat-driven vortices that lift material from the surface and inject it into the atmosphere. The dark or bright surface lineaments left by DDs are called dust devil tracks (DDTs). Dust devils can clear dust from solar panels deposited by gusts and dust storms. Therefore, it is of importance to study the encounter rates of dust devils at the Tianwen-1 landing site for achieving the rover’s long-term scientific goals. Based on High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Context Camera (CTX) images, 248 newly formed DDTs in 12 image pairs were firstly identified, and their lengths, widths, and direction in the study area were measured. The distribution of their width frequency follows a −2 differential power law. Secondly, DDT formation rates were computed and analyzed with the range of 0.00006 to 0.1275 ddt km−2 sol−1, mainly affected by factors such as seasons and dust storm occurrence. Thirdly, the solar panel clearing recurrence interval derived from the orbital data in our study area was calculated from ~980 to 166,700 sols. The dust storm occurrence probability at the Tianwen-1 landing area is less than 3%, and there is a special anti-dust coating on board the Zhurong rover. Thus, the Zhurong rover can be considered competent for scientific exploration.