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Seasonal Variations of Soil Thermal Conductivity at the InSight Landing Site
  • +16
  • Matthias Grott,
  • Sylvain Piqueux,
  • Tilman Spohn,
  • Joerg Knollenberg,
  • Christian Krause,
  • Eloise Marteau,
  • Troy L. Hudson,
  • Francois Forget,
  • Lucas Lange,
  • N. Müller,
  • Matthew P. Golombek,
  • Seiichi Nagihara,
  • Paul Morgan,
  • J.P. Murphy,
  • Matthew Adam Siegler,
  • Scott D. King,
  • Donald Banfield,
  • Suzanne E Smrekar,
  • William Bruce Banerdt
Matthias Grott
DLR Institute for Planetary Research

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Sylvain Piqueux
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Tilman Spohn
Institute of Planetary Research
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Joerg Knollenberg
DLR Institute for Planetary Research
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Christian Krause
DLR Institute of Space Systems
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Eloise Marteau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Troy L. Hudson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Francois Forget
Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique
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Lucas Lange
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique,Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (LMD/IPSL), Sorbonne Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), École Polytechnique, École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France
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N. Müller
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research
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Matthew P. Golombek
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Seiichi Nagihara
Texas Tech University
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Paul Morgan
Colorado School of Mines
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J.P. Murphy
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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Matthew Adam Siegler
Planetary Sciences Institute
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Scott D. King
Virginia Tech
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Donald Banfield
Cornell
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Suzanne E Smrekar
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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William Bruce Banerdt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Abstract

The heat flow and physical properties package measured soil thermal conductivity at the landing site in the 0.03 to 0.37 m depth range. Six measurements spanning solar longitudes from 8.0$^\circ$ to 210.0$^\circ$ were made and atmospheric pressure at the site was simultaneously measured using InSight’s Pressure Sensor. We find that soil thermal conductivity strongly correlates with atmospheric pressure. This trend is compatible with predictions of the pressure dependence of thermal conductivity for unconsolidated soils under martian atmospheric conditions, indicating that heat transport through the pore filling gas is a major contributor to the total heat transport. This implies that any cementation or induration of the soil sampled by the experiments must be minimal and that the soil surrounding the mole at depths below the duricrust is unconsolidated. Thermal conductivity data presented here are the first direct evidence that the atmosphere interacts with the top most meter of material on Mars.
24 Jan 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
01 Feb 2023Published in ESS Open Archive