Numerical Modelling of the GCM of the Martian Atmosphere

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Numerical modelling of atmospheric flows, originally developed for the needs of terrestrial meteorology and climatology, is now more and more frequently applied to the study of planetary atmospheres. General Circulation Models (GCM's) similar to the models which have been developed for the terrestrial atmosphere can be adapted without major difficulties to the conditions of the other telluric planets (see the accompanying paper by Hourdin et al., 'Numerical Modelling of the Circulation of Superrotating Atmospheres: Venus and Titan'). The first attempts at numerical simulation of the circulation of the Martian atmosphere were made as early as the late sixties by Leovy and collaborators. They provided strong evidence for the fact, still disputed at that time, that the Martian polar caps mostly consisted of CO2 ice. Since then, several groups have developed Martian GCM's, which produce results in general remarkable agreement with the available observations. One recent finding obtained from GCM's is that the seasonal cycle of surface pressure is not only due to the condensation-sublimation cycle of the atmospheric CO2. It is also modulated by a seasonal mass transfer between the two hemispheres (itself due to the mean difference in altitude between the hemispheres) and by geostrophic adjustment of the mass field to the seasonally varying circulation. The Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, CNRS and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Oxford University are currently engaged in a joint project, sponsored by ESA, to produce a database of atmospheric statistics of the Martian atmosphere (see the accompanying paper by Read et al., 'A Climate Database for the Martian Atmosphere'). The database will be produced from runs performed with the GCM's developed by the two groups, which are fairly representative of the variability existing in the methods for simulation of atmospheric circulation. In addition to its own scientific interest, and to providing estimates of the physical conditions that a probe can encounter in the Martian atmosphere, numerical simulation can be extremely useful for the exploitation of the data transmitted by planetary probes. Assimilation techniques, similar to those which are used for terrestrial meteorology, are developed by both groups in order to exploit observations of the Martian atmosphere.

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