Exploring the performance of a miniature 3D wind sensor under extreme martian winds up to the dust devil scale

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore the performance of a miniature 3D spherical wind sensor for Mars atmosphere, working under extreme wind speeds, up to the Dust Devil scale. The experimental campaign has been made for winds in the range Reynolds 1000-2000, which for typical Mars conditions and the dimensions of the sensor, represent 65-130m/s wind velocities. The experimental results further confirm high-fidelity numerical simulations of the fluid dynamics and heat transfer from a sphere for Reynolds 1000-104 and Prandtl 0.7, recently published in, which indicate that it is possible to measure in this regime.