Simulating Dust Storms on Mars with Variable Surface Dust Abundance and Particle Size Distributions.

Details Simulating Dust Storms on Mars with Variable Surface Dust Abundance and Particle Size Distributions. Simulating Dust Storms on Mars with Variable Surface Dust Abundance and Particle Size Distributions.

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.4507n&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #45.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1048

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

To date, no numerical model of the martian atmosphere has fully captured the range and variability of the large dust storms that occur during southern spring and summer. A major difficulty is properly estimating the abundance and size distribution of sand and dust on the surface and how this varies with time.
Storm onset should occur in regions where BOTH the surface wind stress exceeds some size-dependent lifting threshold AND sufficient particles of this size are present, with a size-dependent injected dust flux. Once injected, the atmospheric size distribution is affected by size-dependent sedimentation and scavenging (forming cloud condensation nuclei for CO2 and water ice), and in turn affects radiative transfer, interactions with the CO2 and water cycles, and the evolving size distribution of surface dust. Dust storm decay occurs more rapidly than simulated in models, suggesting that scavenging reduces dust opacity more rapidly, and/or that source regions are depleted of dust particles during the largest storms, causing lifting to cease.
We will examine the impact on storms produced of varying first the overall abundance then size distribution of surface dust particles. We will first assume a single particle size, initialize the entire planet with uniform dust cover, and allow lifting and deposition to redistribute the surface dust distribution over many years. We will then assume unlimited surface dust and specify size-dependent injection rates chosen to reproduce the observed atmospheric size distribution. We will conclude by discussing the difficulties of allowing both the surface dust abundance and size distribution to vary simultaneously in the absence of stronger observational constraints.

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