Through the medium resolution image obtained by the orbiter, the tianwen-1 mission team found that the inspection area of the "zhurong" Rover had experienced an obvious process of dust storm. Scientists compared the typical landforms (especially the edge of the impact crater) in the 120m resolution images of the "zhurong" patrol area on March 16 and April 30, 2022 (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 respectively). Combined with the changes of the solar wing power generation current reflected by the recent Mars rover telemetry information, we can judge that the local area is experiencing strong dust weather.
Figure 1: medium resolution image of zhurong patrol area on March 16, 2022 < a href = "" target = "_blank" >
Figure 2: medium resolution image of zhurong patrol area on April 30, 2022. At present, the Mars rover patrol area has entered winter. The maximum temperature during the day has fallen below minus 20 ℃ and the minimum temperature at night has fallen below minus 100 ℃. The temperature will further drop around the winter solstice on Mars in mid July. In order to cope with the reduction of solar wing power generation capacity caused by dust weather and extremely low ambient temperature in winter, according to the design scheme and flight control strategy, the rover switched to sleep mode on May 18. It is expected that around December this year, the "zhurong" inspection area will enter the early spring season. After the environmental conditions improve, it will return to normal work.
The orbiter is carrying out remote sensing exploration of the global coverage of Mars. At present, the imaging area is mainly concentrated in the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere of Mars. The mission team will continue to monitor the local weather conditions by using the surround device as much as possible.