Comprehensive model simulation of thermal tides in the Martian atmosphere.

Details Comprehensive model simulation of thermal tides in the Martian atmosphere. Comprehensive model simulation of thermal tides in the Martian atmosphere.

May 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996jats...53.1290w&link_type=abstract

Journal of Atmospheric Science, Vol. 53, No. 9, p. 1290 - 1326

Computer Science

127

Mars Atmosphere: Circulation, Mars Atmosphere: Oscillations, Mars Atmosphere: Tidal Effects, Mars Atmosphere: Models, Mars Atmosphere: Dynamics

Scientific paper

This paper discusses the thermotidal oscillations in simulations performed with a newly developed comprehensive general circulation model of the Martian atmosphere. With reasonable assumptions about the effective thermal inertia of the planetary surface and about the distribution of radiatively active atmospheric aerosol, the model produces both realistic zonal-mean temperature distributions and a diurnal surface pressure oscillation of at least roughly realistic amplitude. With any reasonable aerosol distribution, the simulated diurnal pressure oscillation has a very strong zonal variation, in particular a very pronounced zonal wavenumber-2 modulation. This results from a combination of the prominent wave-2 component in the important boundary forcings (topography and surface thermal inertia) and from the fact that the eastward propagating zonal wave-1 Kelvin normal mode has a period near 1 sol (a Martian mean solar day of 88775 s). The importance of global resonance is explicitly demonstrated with a series of calculations in which the global mean temperature is arbitrarily altered. The resonant enhancement of the diurnal wave-1 Kelvin mode is predicted to be strongest in the northern summer season. In the model simulations there is also a strong contribution to the semidiurnal tide from a near-resonant eastward-propagating wave-2 Kelvin mode. It is shown that this is significantly forced by a nonlinear steepening of the diurnal Kelvin wave. The daily variations of near-surface winds in the model are also examined. The results show that the daily march of wind at any location depends strongly on the topography, even on the smallest horizontal scales resolved in the model (≡few hundred km). The global tides also play an important role in determining the near-surface winds, especially so in very dusty atmospheric conditions. The results for the diurnal and semidiurnal surface pressure oscillations in seasonal integrations of the model are compared in detail with the observations at the two Viking Lander sites (22°N and 48°N).

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