NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

In a research article [...] a team led by Brian Jackson (Boise State University) described how they used information from Ingenuity to measure the speed and direction of Mars’s winds.

Previously, Jackson had carried out field experiments on Earth with a small drone to show that wind parameters could be extracted from an aircraft’s attitude data. Building on that proof-of-concept study, Jackson’s team used models to understand how Ingenuity’s attitude would change in response to winds of varying speed and direction.

The team calculated wind speeds ranging from 4.1 to 24.3 meters per second [...] Compared to meteorological models, the measured speeds tended to be higher than expected and the wind directions did not always match. These differences might reflect the influence of localized geological features, like craters and scarps that whip the wind in highly variable directions, that the models do not fully capture.

Jackson’s team found it unlikely that the higher speeds measured at Ingenuity’s higher altitude were the result of random fluctuations; instead, they proposed a physical explanation rooted in the aerodynamic conditions upwind of the rover and helicopter.

Accurate measurements of wind speeds on Mars can help scientists investigate our neighboring planet’s surface processes and dust transport, as well as help to plan safe entry, descent, and landing for future missions.