Physics professor contributes to comprehensive study of Mars low-atmosphere acoustics

Andi Petculescu, Professor of Physics at UL Lafayette has co-authored the first comprehansive study on acoustic propagation in the Martian near-surface environment. This comes at a time when acoustic sensing in planetary environments is going through a period of resurgence, bolstered by the realization that acoustic techniques can be used to effciciently characterize atmospheric properties in situ e.g. during descent and post-landing. This latest research culminated with a comprehensive analysis of how the acoustic wavenumber (speed of sound and attenuation coefficient) change with ambient conditions at Mars's surface such as the diurnal and seasonal variations in temperature and pressure, slight variations in composition, the presence of dust, and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer. The wavenumber predictions were also placed in the context of the acoustic measurements done by the SuperCam instrument on board the Perseverance rover of the Mars2020 mission. This work is part of an ongoing collaboration with Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) and Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) from Toulouse, France.

The paper was published in the published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. The details and link are given below.

Martin Gillier, Andi Petculescu, Naomi Murdoch, Alexander E. Stott, Solène Gerier, Sylvestre Maurice, David Mimoun, "Geographical, Seasonal and Diurnal Variations of Acoustic Attenuation, and Sound Speed in the Near-Surface Martian Atmosphere,"
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 129, e2023JE008257. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JE008257