Meteorological Predictions for Landing Site at Jezero Crater.

The () and a nested simulation of the () are used to predict the local meteorological conditions at the rover landing site inside Jezero crater (Mars). These predictions are complemented with the model () and with the local () to further refine predictions of radiative forcing and the water cycle respectively. The primary objective is to facilitate interpretation of the meteorological measurements to be obtained by the () aboard the rover, but also to provide predictions of the meteorological phenomena and seasonal changes that might impact operations, from both a risk perspective and from the perspective of being better prepared to make certain measurements. A full diurnal cycle at four different seasons (L 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°) is investigated. Air and ground temperatures, pressure, wind speed and direction, surface radiative fluxes and moisture data are modeled. The good agreement between observations and modeling in prior works [Pla-Garcia et al. in Icarus 280:103-113, 2016; Newman et al. in Icarus 291:203-231, 2017; Vicente-Retortillo et al. in Sci. Rep. 8(1):1-8, 2018; Savijarvi et al. in Icarus, 2020] provides confidence in utilizing these models results to predict the meteorological environment at rover landing site inside Jezero crater. The data returned by will determine the extent to which this confidence was justified.