Estimations of the Seismic Pressure Noise on Mars Determined from Large Eddy Simulations and Demonstration of Pressure Decorrelation Techniques for the Insight Mission

Abstract

The atmospheric pressure fluctuations on Mars induce an elastic response in the ground that creates a ground tilt, detectable as a seismic signal on the InSight seismometer SEIS. The seismic pressure noise is modeled using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of the wind and surface pressure at the InSight landing site and a Green’s function ground deformation approach that is subsequently validated via a detailed comparison with two other methods: a spectral approach, and an approach based on Sorrells’ theory (Sorrells, Geophys. J. Int. 26:71–82, 1971; Sorrells et al., Nat. Phys. Sci. 229:14–16, 1971). The horizontal accelerations as a result of the ground tilt due to the LES turbulence-induced pressure fluctuations are found to be typically $\sim 2 \mbox{--} 40~\mbox{nm}/\mbox{s}^{2}$ in amplitude, whereas the direct horizontal acceleration is two orders of magnitude smaller and is thus negligible in comparison. The vertical accelerations are found to be $\sim 0.1\mbox{--}6~\mbox{nm}/\mbox{s}^{2}$ in amplitude. These are expected to be worst-case estimates for the seismic noise as we use a half-space approximation; the presence at some (shallow) depth of a harder layer would significantly reduce quasi-static displacement and tilt effects.

We show that under calm conditions, a single-pressure measurement is representative of the large-scale pressure field (to a distance of several kilometers), particularly in the prevailing wind direction. However, during windy conditions, small-scale turbulence results in a reduced correlation between the pressure signals, and the single-pressure measurement becomes less representative of the pressure field. The correlation between the seismic signal and the pressure signal is found to be higher for the windiest period because the seismic pressure noise reflects the atmospheric structure close to the seismometer.

In the same way that we reduce the atmospheric seismic signal by making use of a pressure sensor that is part of the InSight Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite, we also the use the synthetic noise data obtained from the LES pressure field to demonstrate a decorrelation strategy. We show that our decorrelation approach is efficient, resulting in a reduction by a factor of $\sim 5$ in the observed horizontal tilt noise (in the wind direction) and the vertical noise. This technique can, therefore, be used to remove the pressure signal from the seismic data obtained on Mars during the InSight mission.