Development and Evolution of Large-Scale Regional Dust Storms in Space and Time
Abstract
Dust is a key component of the martian atmosphere and climate due to its thermal response to solar radiation. Large-scale regional dust events (LRDE) on Mars occur several times each Mars Year (MY). LRDE loft dust well above the boundary layer producing broad regions of significant heating as well as a strong dynamical response. Here we examine the A LRDE (pre-solstice events) using Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) temperature and aerosol observations with daily global images from the MARs Color Imager (MARCI) to study their behavior in four dimensions. We particularly focus on the initial development and early evolution of LRDE. During this period dust is lifted from the surface, lofted well above the boundary layer and spread by both the background circulation as well as the self-induced dust driven circulation. The detailed growth of each A event is quantitatively and qualitatively mapped out in the combined dataset on a day-by-day basis. The location, areal extent, column opacity, height and vertical structure of the dust, water ice and temperature fields are correlated in both in space and in time to identify trends within each A event in the period MY 29 through MY 35. The A events in the different MY are compared to identify common trends within the class of storms.
Part of this work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Government support acknowledged.- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFM.P42F2454K