DREAMS surface operations
Date: 11 October 2016
Satellite: Schiaparelli
Copyright: ESA/ExoMars/DREAMS
The DREAMS (Dust Characterisation, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface) package, consists of a suite of sensors to measure the wind speed and direction (MetWind), humidity (DREAMS-H), pressure (DREAMS-P), atmospheric temperature close to the surface (MarsTem), the transparency of the atmosphere (Solar Irradiance Sensor, SIS), and atmospheric electrification (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor; MicroARES). All of these data will be used to characterise the basic state of the meteorology at the landing site during the dust storm season, for the few sols that DREAMS operates. DREAMS will provide the first measurements of electric fields on the surface of Mars (with MicroARES). Combined with measurements (from SIS) of the concentration of atmospheric dust, DREAMS will provide new insights into the role of electric forces on dust lifting, the mechanism that initiates dust storms.
In addition, the DREAMS-H sensor will complement MicroARES measurements with critical data about humidity; this will enable scientists understand better the dust electrification process.
Science operations on the surface have been planned to sample the environmental conditions throughout the Martian day and night. During each Martian day (sol) a number of measurement slots are defined, of varying duration, during which all sensors take measurements. In this illustration, the green slots indicate periods when measurements are made, red slots are when the data are sent to orbiters that are passing overhead, for transmission to Earth. The grey slots indicate periods that have been planned if the surface operations exceed the nominal 2 sol duration, in which case the operations will cycle through to the end of the Sol 3 sequence and back to Sol 1.
