Open AccessImpact‐mobilized dust in the Martian atmosphere
Author(s) -
Nemtchinov I. V.,
Shuvalov V. V.,
Greeley R.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: planets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2001je001834
Subject(s) - atmosphere of mars , atmosphere (unit) , meteoroid , mars exploration program , dust storm , atmospheric sciences , martian , entrainment (biomusicology) , storm , environmental science , radius , interplanetary dust cloud , astrobiology , physics , meteorology , solar system , computer security , rhythm , acoustics , computer science
We consider dust production and entrainment into the atmosphere of Mars by impacts. Numerical simulations based on the multidimensional multimaterial hydrocode were conducted for impactors 1 to 100 m in size and velocities 11 and 20 km/s. The size distribution of particles was based on experiments using TNT explosions. Dust can be mobilized even when the impactor does not reach the ground through the release of energy in the atmosphere. We found that the blast‐produced winds entrained dust by a mechanism similar to boundary layer winds as determined from the wind‐tunnel tests. For a 1‐m‐radius stony asteroid releasing its energy in the atmosphere the lifted mass of dust is larger than that in a typical dust devil and could trigger local dust storms. For a 100‐m‐radius meteoroid the amount of injected dust is comparable with the total mass of a global dust storm.