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Aeolin Features and Processes at the Mars Pathfinder Landing SiteThe Mars Pathfinder landing site contains abundant features attributed to aeolian, or wind, processes. These include wind tails, drift deposits, duneforms of various types, ripplelike features, and ventifacts (the first clearly seen on Mars). Many of these features are consistant with formation involving sand-size particles. Although some features, such as dunes, could develop from saltating sand-size aggregates of finer grains, the discovery of ventifact flutes cut in rocks strongly suggests that at least some of the grains are crystalline, rather than aggregates. Excluding the ventifacts, the orientations of the wind-related features correlate well with the orientations of bright wind steaks seen on Viking Orbiter images in the general area. They also correlate with wind direction predictions from the NASA-Ames General Circulation Model (GCM) which show that the strongest winds in the area occur in the northern hemisphere winter and are directed toward 209 degrees.
Document ID
20030071263
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Greeley, Ronald
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Kraft, Michael
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Sullivan, Robert
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Wilson, Gregory
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Bridges, Nathan
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Herkenhoff, Ken
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kuzmin, Ruslan
(Academy of Sciences (USSR) Moscow, USSR)
Malin, Michael
(Malin Space Science Systems San Diego, CA, United States)
Ward, Wes
(Geological Survey Flagstaff, AZ, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
April 25, 1999
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 104
Issue: E4
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
Paper 98JE02553
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-8948
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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