P51B-3939:
Pressure oscillations on the surface of Gale Crater and coincident observations of global circulation patterns.
Friday, 19 December 2014
Manuel De La Torre Juarez1, David M Kass2, Robert Michael Haberle3, Javier Gómez-Elvira4, Ari-Matti Harri5, Armin Kleinboehl1, Henrik Kahanpää5, Melinda A Kahre6, Mark T Lemmon7, Javier Martín-Torres8, Claire E Newman9, Scot CR Rafkin10, Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Manfredi4, Veronica Peinado4, Ashwin R Vasavada2 and Maria-Paz Zorzano4, (1)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)NASA Ames Res Ctr, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (4)INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain, (5)Finnish Meteorological Inst, Helsinki, Finland, (6)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (7)Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, United States, (8)Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Granada, Spain, (9)Ashima Research, Pasadena, CA, United States, (10)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
Abstract:
The annual cycle of mean diurnal surface pressures observed by Curiosity’s Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) has shown oscillations after two Southern Hemispheric storms that occurred before the annual pressure maxima and minima of the dusty season (Ls~250 and 330). The oscillations had a period of ~7 sols and were less visible or absent during the dust free seasons (Ls ~ 0). Martian airborne dust alters the atmosphere’s response to solar radiation and the resulting heating profiles. Since the atmospheric circulation responds to thermal forcing by the Sun, atmospheric dust can alter the large-scale circulation. We use coincident global observations by the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) to examine the global circulation. We find that the observed surface pressure oscillations relate to oscillations of the Hadley cell. We also analyze the potential impacts of these coupled oscillations especially as related to traveling waves and thermal tides.
