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Polarized ambient noise on Mars
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  • Eleonore Stutzmann,
  • Martin Schimmel,
  • Philippe Henri Lognonné,
  • Anna Catherine Horleston,
  • Savas Ceylan,
  • Martin van Driel,
  • Simon C. Stähler,
  • William Bruce Banerdt,
  • Marie Calvet,
  • Constantinos Charalambous,
  • John Clinton,
  • Mélanie Drilleau,
  • Lucie fayon,
  • Raphaël F. Garcia,
  • Domenico Giardini,
  • Kenneth Hurst,
  • Alice Jacob,
  • Taichi Kawamura,
  • Balthasar Kenda,
  • Ludovic Margerin,
  • Naomi Murdoch,
  • Mark Paul Panning,
  • Tom Pike,
  • John-Robert Scholz,
  • Aymeric Spiga
Eleonore Stutzmann
Institut De Physique Du Globe De Paris

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Martin Schimmel
Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera - CSIC
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Philippe Henri Lognonné
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris et Université de Paris Diderot
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Anna Catherine Horleston
University of Bristol
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Savas Ceylan
ETH Zurich
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Martin van Driel
ETH Zürich
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Simon C. Stähler
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
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William Bruce Banerdt
Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA)
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Marie Calvet
Université Paul Sabatier / CNRS
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Constantinos Charalambous
Imperial College London
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John Clinton
Swiss Seismological Service
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Mélanie Drilleau
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
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Lucie fayon
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
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Raphaël F. Garcia
Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace SUPAERO
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Domenico Giardini
ETH Zürich
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Kenneth Hurst
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
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Alice Jacob
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
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Taichi Kawamura
IPGP
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Balthasar Kenda
IPGP Paris
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Ludovic Margerin
Paul Sabatier University - Toulouse III
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Naomi Murdoch
ISAE SUPAERO
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Mark Paul Panning
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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Tom Pike
Imperial College
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John-Robert Scholz
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
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Aymeric Spiga
Sorbonne Université (Faculté des Sciences)
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Abstract

Seismic noise recorded at the surface of Mars has been monitored since February 2019, using the seismometers of the InSight lander.
The noise on Mars is 500 times lower than on Earth at night and it increases during the day. We analyze its polarization as a function of time and frequency in the band 0.03-1Hz. We use the degree of polarization to extract signals with stable polarization whatever their amplitude. We detect polarized signals at all frequencies and all times. Glitches correspond to linear polarized signals which are more abundant during the night. For signals with elliptical polarization, the ellipse is in the horizontal plane with clockwise and anti-clockwise motion at low frequency (LF).
At high frequency (HF), the ellipse is in the vertical plane and the major axis is tilted with respect to the vertical. Whereas polarization azimuths are different in the two frequency bands, they are both varying as a function of local time and season. They are also correlated with wind direction, particularly during the day.
We investigate possible aseismic and seismic origin of the polarized signals. Lander or tether noise are discarded. Pressure fluctuation transported by environmmental wind may explain part of the HF polarization but not the tilt of the ellipse. This tilt can be obtained if the source is an acoustic emission in some particular case. Finally, in the evening when the wind is low, the measured polarized signals seems to correspond to a diffuse seismic wavefield that would be the Mars microseismic noise.