Records of solar array currents recorded by the InSight lander during its first 200 sols on Mars are presented. In addition to the geometric variation in illumination on seasonal and diurnal timescales, the data are influenced by dust suspended in the atmosphere and deposited on the solar panels. Although no dust devils have been detected by InSight's cameras, brief excursions in solar array currents suggest that at least some of the vortices detected by transient pressure drops are accompanied by dust. A step increase in array output (i.e., a “cleaning event”) was observed to be directly associated with the passage of a strong vortex. Some quasiperiodic variations in solar array current are suggestive of dust variations in the planetary boundary layer. Nonzero array outputs before sunrise and after sunset are indicative of scattering in the atmosphere: A notable increase in evening twilight currents is observed associated with noctilucent clouds, likely of water or carbon dioxide ice. Finally, although the observations are intermittent (typically a few hours per sol) and at a modest sample rate (one to two samples per minute), three single‐sample light dips are seen associated with Phobos eclipses. These results demonstrate that engineering data from solar arrays provide valuable scientific situational awareness of the Martian environment.

中文翻译：

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使用 InSight 太阳能电池阵列进行科学观测：火星上的尘埃、云和日食。


展示了洞察号着陆器在火星上的前 200 个太阳期间记录的太阳能电池阵列电流记录。除了季节和昼夜时间尺度上光照的几何变化外，数据还受到悬浮在大气中和沉积在太阳能电池板上的灰尘的影响。尽管洞察号的相机没有检测到尘暴，但太阳能电池阵电流的短暂偏移表明，至少有一些由瞬态压降检测到的涡流伴随着灰尘。据观察，阵列输出的逐步增加（即“清洁事件”）与强涡流的通过直接相关。太阳能电池阵电流的一些准周期变化暗示了行星边界层中尘埃的变化。日出之前和日落之后的非零阵列输出表明大气中的散射：观察到与夜光云（可能是水或二氧化碳冰）相关的晚暮电流显着增加。最后，尽管观测是间歇性的（通常每个溶胶几个小时）并且采样率适中（每分钟一到两个样本），但仍观察到与火卫一日食相关的三个单样本光骤降。这些结果表明，太阳能电池阵列的工程数据为火星环境提供了有价值的科学态势感知。