Gravity Wave Observations by the Mars Science Laboratory REMS Pressure Sensor and Comparison With Mesoscale Atmospheric Modeling With MarsWRF

No Thumbnail Available

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-08

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

21

Series

Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Volume 126, issue 8

Abstract

Surface pressure measurements on Mars have revealed a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena. The Mars Science Laboratory Rover Environmental Monitoring Station pressure sensor data set is now the longest duration record of surface pressure on Mars. We use the first 2580 Martian sols, nearly 4 Mars years, of measurements to identify atmospheric pressure waves with periods of tens of minutes to hours using wavelet analysis on residual pressure after the tidal harmonics are removed. We find these waves have a clear diurnal cycle with strongest activity in the early morning and late evening and a seasonal cycle with the strongest waves in the second half of the martian year (Ls = 180–360°). The strongest such waves of the entire mission occurred during the Mars Year 34 global dust storm. Comparable atmospheric waves are identified using atmospheric modeling with the MarsWRF general circulation model in a “nested” high spatial resolution mode. With the support of the modeling, we find these waves best fit the expected properties of inertia-gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths of O(100s) of km.

Description

Funding Information: Guzewich, Smith, and Khayat were supported by the MSL Participating Scientist program. de la Torre Juarez, Newman, Kahanp??, Vi?dez-Moreiras, and Richardson were supported by the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mason was supported by the NASA Postdoctoral Program, administered by the Universities Space Research Association. A portion of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Funding Information: Guzewich, Smith, and Khayat were supported by the MSL Participating Scientist program. de la Torre Juarez, Newman, Kahanpää, Viúdez‐Moreiras, and Richardson were supported by the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Mason was supported by the NASA Postdoctoral Program, administered by the Universities Space Research Association. A portion of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Publisher Copyright: © 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

curiosity, gravity waves, Mars, mesoscale, REMS

Other note

Citation

Guzewich, S D, de la Torre Juárez, M, Newman, C E, Mason, E, Smith, M D, Miller, N, Khayat, A S J, Kahanpää, H, Viúdez-Moreiras, D & Richardson, M I 2021, ' Gravity Wave Observations by the Mars Science Laboratory REMS Pressure Sensor and Comparison With Mesoscale Atmospheric Modeling With MarsWRF ', Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, vol. 126, no. 8, ARTN e2021JE006907 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JE006907