649 research outputs found
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Results on dust storms and stationary waves in three Mars years of data assimilation
Not available
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Breeding vectors and predictability in the Oxford Mars GCM
A breeding vectors approach is used to study the intrinsic predictability of the Martian atmosphere using the Oxford Mars General Circulation Model (MGCM). The approach, described in detail below, is first tested using a terrestrial general circulation model, the United Kingdom Meteorological Office's Unified Model (UM), and results show growing modes of instability at mid to high latitudes on spatial scales of less than ~1,000km, in qualitative agreement with previous studies performed using terrestrial models. For the Martian atmosphere, and in the absence of radiatively active dust transport (so using a typical background dust distribution for each time of year), the technique reveals model states with approximately zero growth factors, and modes of instability on relatively large (up to ~5,000km) spatial scales. The implications of this for the predictability of the Martian atmosphere and for the usage of ensemble forecasting methods on Mars are also discussed
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Dust cycles and storms in a Mars GCM
A number of different dust lifting parameterizations have been used to model the injection of dust from the Martian surface into the atmosphere, and the form of the resulting dust cycles and dust storms produced are found to be highly dependent on the precise form of the parameterization used, provided that it includes some threshold dependence, and particularly where radiatively active dust transport is employed. This talk will review the most interesting results from previous work. We have recently altered a key factor which particularly affects the dust lifting due to near-surface wind stress, however, so we will also present results using the new dust lifting formulation, and make some comparisons
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Data assimilation for Mars: an overview of results from the Mars Global Surveyor period, proposals for future plans and requirements for open access to assimilation output
Abstract not available. From the introduction: 'The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) has produced an extensive atmospheric data set, both during the initial aerobraking hiatus and later from the scientific mapping phase of the mission which lasted almost three complete Martian seasonal cycles. Thermal profiles for the atmosphere below about 40 km, and total dust and water ice opacities, have been retrieved from TES spectra (Conrath et al., 2000, Smith et al., 2000)...'
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GCM simulations of the martian water cycle
Results from the Viking Orbiter Mars Atmospheric
Water Detectors (MAWD) have long been the definitive
data set for observations of the Martian water cycle
(Farmer et al., 1977). The ongoing Mars Global Surveyor
Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) observations
are providing new insights into the current water
cycle, with detailed longitude-latitude dependence of
water vapour (Figure 1) and water cloud (Figure 2) with
time, as well as information on vertical distribution of
water vapour and ice cloud (Smith, 2001). The described
results are derived from an ongoing project to model the
currentwater cycle using the Oxford version of the European
Mars General Circulation Model (MGCM) (Forget
et al., 1999), which was developed in colaboration with
LMD, Paris
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Atmospheric predictability of the martian atmosphere: from low-dimensional dynamics to operational forecasting?
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MGS accelerometer data analysis with the LMD GCM
Mars Global Surveyor aerobreaking phases, required to
achieve its mapping orbit, have yielded vertical profiles
of thermospheric densities, scale heights and temperatures
covering a broad range of local times, seasons and
spatial coordinates [Keating et al. 1998, 2001]. Phase
I covered local times from 11 to 16 h (assuming 24
"martian hours” per martian day or sols), with a latitude
coverage of approximately 40deg to 60deg N. Seasons
observed during this phase were centered around winter
solstice and altitudes of periapsis range from 115 to
135 km. The altitudes for Phase II were lower, with a
minimum around 100 km and a maximum around 120.
Martian spring was the season covered during this phase
and the local time was between 15 and 16 h. The latitude
covered by Phase II, however, was more extense
than that seen during Phase I, with a coverage from 60deg N
to basically the South Pole
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Recent advances in the development of a European Mars climate model in Oxford
Since the early 1990s, efforts have been under way in Oxford to develop a range of numerical weather and climate prediction models for various studies of the Martian atmosphere and near-surface environment. Early versions of the Oxford model were more in the way of 'process models', aimed at relatively idealised studies e.g. of baroclinic instability[1] and low-level western boundary currents in the cross-equatorial solsticial Hadley circulation[2]. Since the mid-1990s, however, the group in Oxford have worked closely with the modelling group at LMD in Paris to develop a joint suite of more sophisticated and comprehensive numerical models of Mars' atmosphere. This collaboration, partly sponsored in recent years by the European Space Agency in connection with the associated development of a climate database for Mars[3], culminated in a suite of global circulation models[4], in which both groups share a library of parametrisation schemes, but in which the Oxford team use a spectral representation of horizontal fields (in the form of spherical harmonics) and the LMD group use a grid-point finite difference representation. These models were described in some detail by Forget et al.[4], and their preliminary validation and use in the construction of first versions of the European Mars Climate Database by Lewis et al.[3]. In the present report, we will review further developments which have taken place since the latter papers were published. Aspects of these developments which are common to both the LMD and Oxford groups will also be covered in the companion contribution by Forget et al. in this meeting, and so will only be touched on briefly here. Instead, we will concentrate on those advances which are more specific to the Oxford version of the model. In the following sections, we outline the main new developments to the model formulation since 1999. Subsequent sections then describe some recent examples where the new model is being utilised to advance a diverse range of studies of Mars atmospheric science
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Validation of martian meteorological data assimilation for MGS/TES using radio occultation measurements
We describe an assimilation of thermal profiles below about 40 km altitude and total dust opacities into a general circulation model (GCM) of the martian atmosphere. The data were provided by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. The results of the assimilation are verified against an independent source of contemporaneous data represented by radio occultation measurements with an ultra-stable radio oscillator, also aboard MGS. This paper describes a comparison between temperature profiles retrieved by the radio occultation experiments and the corresponding profiles given by both an independent, carefully tuned GCM simulation and by an assimilation of TES observations performed over the period of time from middle, northern summer in martian year 24, corresponding to May 1999, until late, northern spring in martian year 27, corresponding to August 2004. This study shows that the assimilation of TES measurements improves the overall agreement between radio occultation observations and the GCM analysis, in particular below 20 km altitude, where the radio occultation measurements are known to be most accurate. Discrepancies still remain, mostly during the global dust storm of year 2001 and at latitudes around 60° N in northern winter–early spring. These are the periods of time and locations, however, for which discrepancies between TES and radio occultation profiles are also shown to be the largest. Finally, a further direct validation is performed, comparing stationary waves at selected latitudes and time of year. Apart from biases at high latitudes in winter time, data assimilation is able to represent the correct wave behaviour, which is one major objective for martian assimilation
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