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| Titel |
The 2001 Planet-encircling Dust Storm on Mars: A Meteorological view |
| VerfasserIn |
L. Montabone, O. Martínez-Alvarado, S. R. Lewis, A. Spiga, P. L. Read |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2009
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 11 (2009) |
| Datensatznummer |
250029259
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| Zusammenfassung |
| In July 2001 (Martian year 25), Mars was enshrouded by a thick veil of dust which lasted for
several months and obscured the observation of its surface to spacecraft cameras and
ground-based telescopes. The emergence and rapid evolution (within a few days) of multiple,
isolated, regional dust storms which eventually attained planetary scale extent were observed
by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft using high resolution camera images
and the thermal profiles and dust opacity measurements provided by the Thermal Emission
Spectrometer (TES).
We have applied a technique used in Terrestrial meteorology (sequential data
assimilation) to obtain a complete, four-dimensional evolution of all the atmospheric
variables during the period of this planet-encircling dust storm, even those which were not
directly observed by the MGS satellite, such as surface pressure and winds. We assimilated
TES nadir-pointing thermal profiles and total dust opacities in a global circulation model of
the Martian atmosphere, developed jointly by the University of Oxford and the Open
University in the United Kingdom, with the collaboration of the Laboratoire de Météorologie
Dynamique in Paris (UK-MGCM).
In conjunction with the use of data assimilation, we have also carried out mesoscale
simulations with the new Mars mesoscale model developed at the Laboratoire de
Météorologie Dynamique. The boundary conditions have been in this case provided by the
UK-GCM with data assimilation included.
The purpose of this study is to describe in detail the meteorology on Mars at the time of
the onset and evolution of the 2001 planet-encircling dust storm, which can be separated in
different key phases. One of these phases involves an episode of teleconnection
(in the sense of radiative-dynamical connection at distance) which coupled two
regions on the planet almost 180 degrees longitude apart: the Hesperia Planum
(north of the Hellas Basin) and the Syria-Syrtis Planum (in the Tharsis region). |
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