The Mariner 9 photographs of the Martian surface include many which show crater-associated streaks caused by atmospheric winds. Due to the low density atmosphere of Mars, the wind speeds necessary to move surface particles and thus cause the streaks are apparently very high. The atmospheric-boundary-layer wind tunnel has been used to determine threshold speeds for particles of varying density and diameter and the results for small particles have been extrapolated to estimate somewhat lower threshold speeds on Mars than previous estimates. A series of streak modeling tests is used to derive an erosion-rate correlation function, which is in turn used to estimate erosion rates to the lee of some of the craters on Mars which exhibited time-dependent streak behavior during the mission.


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    Title :

    Estimates of saltation threshold and erosion rates on Mars


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and American Geophysical Union, Conference on the Exploration of the Outer Planets


    Publication date :

    1975-09-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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