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This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the projects No. ESP2014-54256-C4-1-R (also -2-R, -3-R and -4-R) and AYA2015-65041-P; Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, projects No. ESP2016-79612-C3-1-R (also -2-R and -3-R), ESP2016-80320-C2-1-R, RTI2018-098728-B-C31 (also -C32 and -C33) and RTI2018-099825-B-C31; Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial; Ministry of Science and Innovation's Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology; Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19; and European Research Council Consolidator Grant no 818602.

Analysis of institutional authors

Romero Guzman, CatalinaAuthorCastaner, LAuthorJimenez, VAuthorPerez-Grande, IAuthor

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May 17, 2021
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The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, MEDA. A Suite of Environmental Sensors for the Mars 2020 Mission

Publicated to:Space Science Reviews. 217 (3): 48- - 2021-04-01 217(3), DOI: 10.1007/s11214-021-00816-9

Authors: Rodriguez-Manfredi, J A; Juarez, M de la Torre; Alonso, A; Apestigue, V; Arruego, I; Atienza, T; Banfield, D; Boland, J; Carrera, M A; Castaner, L; Ceballos, J; Chen-Chen, H; Cobos, A; Conrad, P G; Cordoba, E; del Rio-Gaztelurrutia, T; de Vicente-Retortillo, A; Dominguez-Pumar, M; Espejo, S; Fairen, A G; Fernandez-Palma, A; Ferrandiz, R; Ferri, F; Fischer, E; Garcia-Manchado, A; Garcia-Villadangos, M; Genzer, M; Gimenez, S; Gomez-Elvira, J; Gomez, F; Guzewich, S D; Harri, A-M; Hernandez, C D; Hieta, M; Hueso, R; Jaakonaho, I; Jimenez, J J; Jimenez, V; Larman, A; Leiter, R; Lepinette, A; Lemmon, M T; Lopez, G; Madsen, S N; Makinen, T; Marin, M; Martin-Soler, J; Martinez, G; Molina, A; Mora-Sotomayor, L; Moreno-Alvarez, J F; Navarro, S; Newman, C E; Ortega, C; Parrondo, M C; Peinado, V; Pena, A; Perez-Grande, I; Perez-Hoyos, S; Pla-Garcia, J; Polkko, J; Postigo, M; Prieto-Ballesteros, O; Rafkin, S C R; Ramos, M; Richardson, M, I; Romeral, J; Romero, C; Runyon, K D; Saiz-Lopez, A; Sanchez-Lavega, A; Sard, I; Schofield, J T; Sebastian, E; Smith, M D; Sullivan, R J; Tamppari, L K; Thompson, A D; Toledo, D; Torrero, F; Torres, J; Urqui, R; Velasco, T; Viudez-Moreiras, D; Zurita, S; MEDA Team

Affiliations

Added Value Solut, Elgoibar, Spain - Author
Aeolis Corp, Siena Madre, CA USA - Author
CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, Pasadena, CA USA - Author
Carnegie Inst, Washington, DC USA - Author
Cornell Univ, Cornell Ctr Astrophys & Planetary Sci, Ithaca, NY USA - Author
CRISA Airbus, Tres Cantos, Spain - Author
CSIC, Ctr Astrobiol INTA, Madrid, Spain - Author
CSIC, Inst Microelect Sevilla US, Seville, Spain - Author
CSIC, Inst Phys Chem Rocasolano, Dept Atmospher Chem & Climate, Madrid, Spain - Author
Finnish Meteorol Inst, Helsinki, Finland - Author
Inst Nacl Tecn Aerosp INTA, Madrid, Spain - Author
John Hopkins APL, Laurel, MD USA - Author
Lunar & Planetary Inst, 3303 NASA Rd 1, Houston, TX 77058 USA - Author
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA - Author
Southwest Res Inst Boulder, Boulder, CO USA - Author
Space Sci Inst, Boulder, CO USA - Author
Univ Alcala, Alcala De Henares, Spain - Author
Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA - Author
Univ Padua, Padua, Italy - Author
Univ Pais Vasco UPV EHU, Bilbao, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Cataluna, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Madrid, Spain - Author
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Abstract

NASA's Mars 2020 (M2020) rover mission includes a suite of sensors to monitor current environmental conditions near the surface of Mars and to constrain bulk aerosol properties from changes in atmospheric radiation at the surface. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) consists of a set of meteorological sensors including wind sensor, a barometer, a relative humidity sensor, a set of 5 thermocouples to measure atmospheric temperature at similar to 1.5 m and similar to 0.5 m above the surface, a set of thermopiles to characterize the thermal IR brightness temperatures of the surface and the lower atmosphere. MEDA adds a radiation and dust sensor to monitor the optical atmospheric properties that can be used to infer bulk aerosol physical properties such as particle size distribution, non-sphericity, and concentration. The MEDA package and its scientific purpose are described in this document as well as how it responded to the calibration tests and how it helps prepare for the human exploration of Mars. A comparison is also presented to previous environmental monitoring payloads landed on Mars on the Viking, Pathfinder, Phoenix, MSL, and InSight spacecraft.

Keywords

Aerosol propertiesAerosolsAlbedoAtmosphereAtmospheric humidityAtmospheric propertiesAtmospheric radiationAtmospheric temperatureBrightness temperaturesCloudsDustEnvironmental conditionsEnvironmental dynamicsEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental sensorInstrumentsMarsMars2020Meda instrumentMeteorological sensorsNasaOptical propertiesParticle sizeParticle size analysisPerseverancePressureRadiation fluxesSize distributionSpace flightSurface temperatureTemperatureThermal infraredThermocouplesUvWind

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Space Science Reviews due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 7/69, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Astronomy & Astrophysics. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.38. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 6.82 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 40.33 (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-24, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 21
  • Scopus: 101
  • Google Scholar: 92

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-24:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 69.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 69 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 22.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 7 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on Wikipedia: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 1 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Finland; Germany; Italy; United States of America.