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T. Siili, A.-M. Harri (FMI), J. Kauhanen, A. Määttänen, H. Savijärvi (UH/PHYS/ATM)
The European Mars surface network mission \emph{NetLander} is scheduled for launch in Sep 2007, landing in Aug 2008 (southern winter, nominally L_{s} \approx 101^{\circ}-114^{\circ}) for a full Martian year of operations. The network comprises four well-instrumented landers. The NetLander ATmospheric and Meteorological Instrument System (ATMIS) is a sophisticated set of atmospheric sensors for observations of p, \vec{V}, multi-level Tair, Tground, humidity and \tau. The ATMIS is expected to provide high-quality long-term observations needed to understand Martian boundary layer, mesoscale, and general circulation phenomena as well as climate cycles of dust, CO2 and H2O\@.
One of the plausible landing regions is centred at the northern edge of Hellas (293.4\circW,27\circS), with semimajor axis of the landing ellipse of the order of 500~km. In this work we have simulated (with emphasis on NetLander-observable near-surface characteristics) possible mesoscale/regional circulation and related phenomena occurring in this region using the Univ.\ of Helsinki Division of Atmospheric Sciences (UH/ATM) 2-D high-resolution Mars Mesoscale Circulation Model (MMCM). Seasonal variations as well as influences of the steep slope and the possible proximity of the midwinter CO2 polar cap edge have been investigated.
Funding for this work was in part provided by the Academy of Finland (project 51441) and is gratefully acknowledged.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #3< br> © 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.