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Large-scale planetary waves are diagnosed from an analysis of profiles retrieved from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft during its scientific mapping phase. The analysis is conducted by assimilating thermal profiles and total dust opacity retrievals into a Mars global circulation model. Transient waves are largest throughout the northern hemisphere autumn, winter and spring period and almost absent during the summer. The southern hemisphere exhibits generally weaker transient wave behaviour. A striking feature of the low-altitude transient waves in the analysis is that they show a broad subsidiary minimum in amplitude centred on the winter solstice, a period when the thermal contrast between the summer hemisphere and the winter pole is strongest and baroclinic wave activity might be expected to be strong. This behaviour, here called the ‘solsticial pause,’ is present in every year of the analysis. This strong pause is under-represented in many independent model experiments, which tend to produce relatively uniform baroclinic wave activity throughout the winter. This paper documents and diagnoses the transient wave solsticial pause found in the analysis; a companion paper investigates the origin of the phenomenon in a series of model experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The martian solsticial pause, presented in a companion paper ( Lewis et al., 2016 ), was investigated further through a series of model runs using the UK version of the LMD/UK Mars Global Climate Model. It was found that the pause could not be adequately reproduced if radiatively active water ice clouds were omitted from the model. When clouds were used, along with a realistic time-dependent dust opacity distribution, a substantial minimum in near-surface transient eddy activity formed around solstice in both hemispheres. The net effect of the clouds in the model is, by altering the thermal structure of the atmosphere, to decrease the vertical shear of the westerly jet near the surface around solstice, and thus reduce baroclinic growth rates. A similar effect was seen under conditions of large dust loading, implying that northern midlatitude eddy activity will tend to become suppressed after a period of intense flushing storm formation around the northern cap edge. Suppression of baroclinic eddy generation by the barotropic component of the flow and via diabatic eddy dissipation were also investigated as possible mechanisms leading to the formation of the solsticial pause but were found not to make major contributions. Zonal variations in topography were found to be important, as their presence results in weakened transient eddies around winter solstice in both hemispheres, through modification of the near-surface flow. The zonal topographic asymmetry appears to be the primary reason for the weakness of eddy activity in the southern hemisphere relative to the northern hemisphere, and the ultimate cause of the solsticial pause in both hemispheres. The meridional topographic gradient was found to exert a much weaker influence on near-surface transient eddies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Water vapour is assimilated into a Mars GCM producing an improved analysis. [•] The analysis reproduces vapour column observations to within the retrieval RMS error. [•] The Hellas and Argyre basins act as regions of increased vapour transport. [•] Net water transport to the northern hemisphere is quantified. [•] Frost deposits around the north polar cap create the observed peak vapour abundances. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The redistribution of a finite amount of martian surface dust during global dust storms and in the intervening periods has been modelled in a dust lifting version of the UK Mars General Circulation Model. When using a constant, uniform threshold in the model’s wind stress lifting parameterisation and assuming an unlimited supply of surface dust, multiannual simulations displayed some variability in dust lifting activity from year to year, arising from internal variability manifested in surface wind stress, but dust storms were limited in size and formed within a relatively short seasonal window. Lifting thresholds were then allowed to vary at each model gridpoint, dependent on the rates of emission or deposition of dust. This enhanced interannual variability in dust storm magnitude and timing, such that model storms covered most of the observed ranges in size and initiation date within a single multiannual simulation. Peak storm magnitude in a given year was primarily determined by the availability of surface dust at a number of key sites in the southern hemisphere. The observed global dust storm (GDS) frequency of roughly one in every 3years was approximately reproduced, but the model failed to generate these GDSs spontaneously in the southern hemisphere, where they have typically been observed to initiate. After several years of simulation, the surface threshold field—a proxy for net change in surface dust density—showed good qualitative agreement with the observed pattern of martian surface dust cover. The model produced a net northward cross-equatorial dust mass flux, which necessitated the addition of an artificial threshold decrease rate in order to allow the continued generation of dust storms over the course of a multiannual simulation. At standard model resolution, for the southward mass flux due to cross-equatorial flushing storms to offset the northward flux due to GDSs on a timescale of ∼3years would require an increase in the former by a factor of 3–4. Results at higher model resolution and uncertainties in dust vertical profiles mean that quasi-periodic redistribution of dust on such a timescale nevertheless appears to be a plausible explanation for the observed GDS frequency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Dust devils are particle laden convective vortices that form at the base of convective plumes. They are typically observed in dry desert climates on Earth and have been observed to form frequently on Mars. Meteorological measurements have also indicated that martian surface spacecraft have experienced numerous dust devil transits. To date, the characterisation of dust devils through the interpretation of spectral measurements of sunlight taken during a transit has yet to be investigated. Such measurements would provide valuable information of the physical size, dust load and internal structure of dust devils. A Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer (MCRT) model was developed to simulate the attenuation of sunlight through a dust devil and to investigate the observed spectral variation during such an event. The predicted transit signature resulting from a dust devil transit is highly dependent on the method of observation. The scattered light flux increases during the transit with the magnitude dependent on the dust concentration, making it sensitive to the internal dust distribution. This dependence is not observed for the total light flux which experiences a decrease and is strongly dependent on the total extinction through the vortex and insensitive to how the dust is distributed. The implication of this work is that separate in situ measurement of both the total and scattered flux is crucial for characterising dust devils and such measurements provide a powerful tool that could be exploited by future Mars missions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) performs radio occultation (RO) measurements on selected orbits, generally once per day. We have retrieved atmospheric profiles from two subsets of data, yielding a variety of new results that illustrate the scientific value of the observations. One set of measurements sounded the tropics in northern summer at a local time ∼1 h before sunrise. Some of these profiles contain an unexpected layer of neutral stability with a depth of ∼4 km and a pressure at its upper boundary of ∼160 Pa. The mixed layer is bounded above by a temperature inversion and below by another strong inversion adjacent to the surface. This type of structure is observed near Gale Crater, in the Tharsis region, and at a few other locations, whereas profiles in Amazonis Planitia and Elysium Planitia show no sign of a detached mixed layer with an overlying inversion. We supplemented the measurements with numerical simulations by the NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Model, which demonstrate that water ice clouds can generate this distinctive type of temperature structure through their influence on radiative transfer at infrared wavelengths. In particular, the simulations predict the presence of a nocturnal cloud layer in the Tharsis region at a pressure of ∼150 Pa (∼10 km above the surface), and the nighttime radiative cooling at cloud level is sufficient to produce a temperature inversion above the cloud as well as convective instability below the cloud, consistent with the observations. The second set of measurements sounded mid-to-high northern latitudes in spring, when carefully coordinated observations by the MRO Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) are also available. The differences between the RO and MCS temperature profiles are generally consistent with the expected performance of the two instruments. Within this set of 21 comparisons the average temperature difference is less than 1 K where the aerosol opacities are smaller than 10 - 3 km - 1 , at pressures of 10–50 Pa, whereas it increases to ∼2 K where the aerosol opacities exceed this threshold, at pressures of 50–300 Pa. The standard deviation of the temperature difference is ∼2 K, independent of pressure. The second set of RO measurements also provides unique information about the stability of the annual CO 2 cycle and the dynamics near the edge of the seasonal CO 2 ice cap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent retrievals of zonal thermal winds obtained in a cyclostrophic regime on Venus are generally consistent with cloud tracking measurements at mid-latitudes, but become unphysical in polar regions where the values obtained above the clouds are often less than or close to zero. Using a global atmospheric model, we show that the main source of errors that appear in the polar regions when retrieving the zonal thermal winds is most likely due to uncertainties in the zonal wind intensity in the choice of the lower boundary condition. Here we suggest a new and robust method to better estimate the lower boundary condition for high latitudes, thereby improving the retrieved zonal thermal winds throughout the high latitudes middle atmosphere. This new method is applied to temperature fields derived from Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) data on board the Venus Express spacecraft. We obtain a zonal thermal wind field that is in better agreement with other, more direct methods based on either retrieving the zonal winds from cloud tracking or from direct measurements of the meridional slope of pressure surfaces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The hypothesis of a low dimensional martian climate attractor is investigated by the application of the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to a simulation of martian atmospheric circulation using the UK Mars general circulation model (UK-MGCM). In this article we focus on a time series of the interval between autumn and winter in the northern hemisphere, when baroclinic activity is intense. The POD is a statistical technique that allows the attribution of total energy (TE) to particular structures embedded in the UK-MGCM time-evolving circulation. These structures are called empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). Ordering the EOFs according to their associated energy content, we were able to determine the necessary number to account for a chosen amount of atmospheric TE. We show that for Mars a large fraction of TE is explained by just a few EOFs (with 90% TE in 23 EOFs), which apparently support the initial hypothesis. We also show that the resulting EOFs represent classical types of atmospheric motion, such as thermal tides and transient waves. Thus, POD is shown to be an efficient method for the identification of different classes of atmospheric modes. It also provides insight into the non-linear interaction of these modes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]