Mars Surface Pressure Oscillations as Precursors of Large Dust Storms Reaching Gale

Modeling and observations have long demonstrated that Martian dust storms strongly interfere with global circulation patterns and change the diurnal and semidiurnal pressure variability as well as oscillations with periods greater than one sol associated with planetary waves. As of early 2022, five Mars years of pressure data have been collected by the Curiosity Rover in Gale crater with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS). A combination of signal filtering techniques is used to search for pressure signatures that might warn large-scale dust storms reaching Gale. The analysis combines an exploration of changes in both baroclinic waves and thermal tides for the first time to our knowledge. Focusing on the periods preceding local opacity increases as detected by Curiosity's Mastcam observations, the pressure analysis shows changes in the coupling between the diurnal pressure tide and quasi-diurnal Kelvin wave, as well as in the temporal evolution of baroclinic waves that are harbingers of the larger dust storms. Changes in the phasing between Kelvin waves and diurnal tides are found to be precursors for the growth phase of periods Z (defined here as Ls ∼ 120°–160°), A (Ls ∼ 190°–240°), and C (Ls ∼ 300°–335°) dust storms. Changes in multi-sol pressure oscillations also help predict the occurrence of A, B (Ls ∼ 245°–295°), and C storms. The specific pressure oscillations preceding each storm period are likely to be signatures of the large-scale circulation patterns that enable the growth and propagation of the storm fronts.

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Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the MCAM and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station Teams. Comments and suggestions by the M. Battalio and M. Mischna were very useful and are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, project No RTI2018-098728-B-C31, and the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial. A portion of this work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. The US coauthors performed their work under sponsorship from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the MCAM and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station Teams. Comments and suggestions by the M. Battalio and M. Mischna were very useful and are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, project No RTI2018‐098728‐B‐C31, and the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial. A portion of this work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. The US coauthors performed their work under sponsorship from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project. Publisher Copyright: © 2022. The Authors.

Keywords

dust storm precursors, emprical mode decomposition, Mars, planetary waves, singular spectrum analysis, surface pressure

DOI

10.1029/2021JE007005

Citation

Zurita-Zurita, S, de la Torre Juárez, M, Newman, C E, Viúdez-Moreiras, D, Kahanpää, H T, Harri, A M, Lemmon, M T, Pla-García, J & Rodríguez-Manfredi, J A 2022, ' Mars Surface Pressure Oscillations as Precursors of Large Dust Storms Reaching Gale ', Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, vol. 127, no. 8, e2021JE007005 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JE007005

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202209145591

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Mars Surface Pressure Oscillations as Precursors of Large Dust Storms Reaching Gale

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