It turns out that Mars can be a very windy place.
A weather station dubbed Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) was aboard Perseverance when it landed on Mars in February 2021, among other instruments.
The instrument contains two wind sensors that measure speed and direction, along with several other sensors that measure humidity, radiation, and air temperature.
"The sensor has reduced capabilities, but it still provides speed and direction magnitudes," wrote Rodriguez Manfredi, a scientist at the Spanish Astrobiology Center in Madrid.
Perseverance's wind sensor was designed with redundancy and protection in mind, Rodriguez Manfredi said. "But everything has a limit."