In this paper we explore the possibility of deriving
low-dimensional models of the dynamics of the Martian
atmosphere. The analysis consists of a Proper
Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the atmospheric
streamfunction after first decomposing the vertical
structure with a set of eigenmodes. The vertical
modes were obtained from the quasi-geostrophic vertical
structure equation. The empirical orthogonal functions
(EOFs) were optimized to represent the atmospheric
total energy. The total energy was used as the
criterion to retain those modes with large energy content
and discard the rest. The principal components
(PCs) were analysed by means of Fourier analysis, so
that the dominant frequencies could be identified. It
was possible to observe the strong influence of the diurnal
cycle and to identify the motion and vacillation
of baroclinic waves
