Wind shear stress over Gale Crater, Mars, from CFD simulations

Abstract

Wind is one of the most important geological agents on today’s Mars and is responsible, for instance, for planet-wide migration of ripples and dunes. However, the significance of local topography for regional sand-moving wind patterns is still poorly understood. Here, we investigate the average turbulent surface wind shear stress over Gale Crater, Mars, by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Our results reveal how topographic effects at different scales affect local wind systems, thus contributing to understand present-day Aeolian activity throughout the crater. By coupling CFD to morphodynamic simulations of the sand landscape, we develop a numerical tool for modelling dune fields in Gale crater and in other Aeolian settings affected by strong local topography on Mars.