Turbulence statistics of terrestrial Mars-analog and Martian dust devils

Convective instabilities in the lowermost part of the atmosphere, so called the planetary boundary layer, can lead to the formation of convective vortices and form dust devils both on Earth and Mars. We performed mesoscale simulations for a Mars-analog terrestrial site, Makgadikgadi Pan - Botswana [1,2], where a state-of-the art field campaign was conducted to investigate the terrestrial dust devils, and the InSight landing site [3] using WRF/MarsWRF models [4,5]. We then combined our atmospheric modeling with in-situ observations of wind and pressure to perform a comparative boundary-layer meteorology study. We focused on the length and time of scales of turbulence and investigated the turbulent spectrum. [1] Toledo, D., Apéstigue, V., Arruego, I., Montoro, F., Martinez-Oter, J., Serrano, F., Yela, M., Carrasco-Blázquez, I. and Franchi, F., 2022, September. Investigating dust devils on Mars through the Makadikadi Salt Pans analogue (Botswana). In European Planetary Science Congress (pp. EPSC2022-485).[2] Toledo, D., Apéstigue, V., Martinez-Oter, J., Franchi, F., Serrano, F., Yela, M., De La Torre Juarez, M., Rodriguez-Manfredi, J.A. and Arruego, I., 2023. Using the Perseverance MEDA-RDS to identify and track dust devils and dust-lifting gust fronts. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 10, p.1221726.[3] Lorenz, R.D., Spiga, A., Lognonné, P., Plasman, M., Newman, C.E. and Charalambous, C., 2021. The whirlwinds of Elysium: A catalog and meteorological characteristics of “dust devil” vortices observed by InSight on Mars. Icarus, 355, p.114119.[4] Temel, O., Senel, C.B., Porchetta, S., Muñoz-Esparza, D., Mischna, M.A., Van Hoolst, T., van Beeck, J. and Karatekin, Ö., 2021. Large eddy simulations of the Martian convective boundary layer: towards developing a new planetary boundary layer scheme. Atmospheric Research, 250, p.105381.[5] Temel, O., Bricteux, L. and van Beeck, J., 2018. Coupled WRF-OpenFOAM study of wind flow over complex terrain. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 174, pp.152-169.