Mars atmosphere dynamics: seasonal evolution of mean meridional temperature cross section and zonal wind derived from PFS-MEX.

Other

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

A big amount of data acquired by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on board of Mars Express mission (MEX) has been analyzed, resulting in a higher level data, namely calculated atmospheric temperatures field, thanks to the operational range of PFS long wavelength channel falling in the Thermal Infrared region. Singles temperature profile has been obtained by the BDM algorithm, developed in IFSI and described in great detail in [1]. Starting from these data, thanks also to spacecraft polar orbit, we are able to derive mean meridional cross section of thermal structure, using the geostrophic or higher-order approximations [3], and to compute the related zonal wind in the range from 5 to about 50 km. Also the annual evolution atmospheric temperature and zonal winds can be seen from the analysis, thanks to the large time spanned by data set, namely solar longitude 330°-360° for the first observation year, until 210° of solar longitude from the second year, or, in other words, from the end of the north hemisphere winter to the middle autumn, highlighting the residual Hadley circulation. As from previous results performed on Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), presence of asymmetric Hadley circulation is clearly shown: during the solstice there should be only one cell (Fig.1) starting from a near equatorial region ascending branch and ending in a polar descending branch in northern hemisphere at the beginning of the northern winter and in southern hemisphere at the end of the northern summer [2]. An attempt to compare our results with model and other instruments' result is made, showing both the agreement whit the European Mars Climate Database and with zonal wind derived from TES, on board the Mars Global Surveyor. The latter dataset present significative difference due to different observational parameters, first of all a different orbit, even if there is a good agreement between results from the two instruments. References [1] Grassi D. , et al (2005) PSS, 53, 1053-1064. [2] Smith D., and Pearl J.C. (2001), JGR , 106, E10, 23929-23945. [3] Zurek, R., et al. (1992) in Mars (eds Kieffer et al.) 835-933.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Mars atmosphere dynamics: seasonal evolution of mean meridional temperature cross section and zonal wind derived from PFS-MEX. does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Mars atmosphere dynamics: seasonal evolution of mean meridional temperature cross section and zonal wind derived from PFS-MEX., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Mars atmosphere dynamics: seasonal evolution of mean meridional temperature cross section and zonal wind derived from PFS-MEX. will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1793803

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.