Mars Wind & Wave Mapping (MWWM) research project: preliminary results
Abstract
The Mars Wind & Wave Mapping project is an ESA-funded research activity with the objective of extending our current knowledge in the dynamics of Martian atmosphere, comparing remote sensing data from Mars Express (MEX) spacecraft, Earth telescopes and simulations of the Mars Global Climate Model (GCM) and mesoscale models. The expected outputs of this project are a map of wind velocities, based on Doppler measurements during the 2018 Global Dust Storm, and a database of atmospheric gravity waves. Measuring winds on Mars is a challenge for remote observations but a global dust storm offers a unique opportunity to use an innovative technique, measuring the Doppler effect of solar Fraunhofer lines back-scattered on the Mars dust cloud. This innovative Doppler technique, never used on Mars before, has been developed by the research group at IA Lisbon and successfully implemented by retrieving winds at Venus cloud top region (Machado+2017), producing the first ground-based direct mapping of Venus wind velocities. Although the Martian atmosphere is optically thinner, it is possible to adapt the Doppler method and retrieve wind velocities using the solar radiation back-scattered on the dust particles during a Global Dust Storm. The first ground observations using this technique were already performed as a Target of Opportunity proposal with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) UVES instrument in June/July 2018 (ESO Observation Programme 2101.C-5029(A)), and coordinated with simultaneous MEX remote sensing measurements. The first efforts to retrieve a Martian wind velocity field have already demonstrated the proof of concept with promising results (Machado+2020). In this contribution we will describe the progress in the preparation of the first global map of Martian winds retrieved from Earth, measured at the altitude of the dust layer using the VLT/UVES data obtained during the past global dust storm in 2018. The second part of this project is a characterisation of the Gravity Waves in the atmosphere of Mars. These waves have already been detected by MEX (Maattanen+2010, Spiga+2012), although there is still an important dataset of unexploited atmospheric observations (Gondet+2018) to be analysed. The second task (MWWM-T2) aims to build the first catalogue of atmospheric gravity waves and morphological parameters using Mars Express OMEGA data. Preliminary work has already started to validate the methodology (Brasil+2021, figure 2) adapting the technique that was already used successfully for Venus (Silva+2021). This task will provide the main wave parameters: time, spatial coordinates, packet length/width, orientation and phase speed, to be analysed in correlation with mars topography, illumination conditions, local time and Mars seasonal climate variability. Both winds and waves induce temporal and spatial variations in the atmosphere and the complete interpretation is only possible with the application of 3D climate models and contextual information. For this reason this project aims to cover an extensive science exchange with the experts that have analysed the contribution of winds and gravity waves in the Mars climate circulation (Spiga+2012, González-Galindo+2015, Gilli+2020), and strengthen the role of ESA scientists in the research collaboration promoting the use of observations performed from Earth and simultaneously from Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter (Cardesin-Moinelo+2021). References ·2101.C-5029(A) ESO VLT Observation Programme: Dust Storm on Mars http://archive.eso.org/wdb/wdb/eso/sched_rep_arc/query?progid=2101.C-5029(A) ·Brasil+2021: Characterising Atmospheric Gravity Waves on Mars using Mars Express OMEGA images - a preliminary study. EPSC2021-188 ·Cardesin-Moinelo+2017: A "New" Scientific Camera around Mars, Getting Science with Visual Monitoring Camera onboard Mars Express. Proceedings of MAMO 2017mamo.conf.1202C ·Cardesin-Moinelo+2021: First year of coordinated science observations by Mars Express and ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter. Icarus 2021 10.1016/j.icarus.2020.113707 ·Gonzalez-Galindo+2015: Variability of the Martian thermosphere during eight Martian years as simulated by a ground-to-exosphere global circulation model. JGR 2015 10.1002/2015JE004925 ·Gilli+2020: Impact of Gravity Waves on the Middle Atmosphere of Mars: A Non-Orographic Gravity Wave Parameterization Based on Global Climate Modeling and MCS Observations. JGR 2020 10.1029/2018JE005873 ·Gondet+2018: More and still unexploited atmospheric OMEGA/MEx observations, EPSC2018-313 ·Hernandez-Bernal+2020: An Extremely Elongated Cloud Over Arsia Mons Volcano on Mars: I. Life Cycle. JGR 2021 10.1029/2020JE006517 ·Machado+2017: Venus cloud-tracked and doppler velocimetry winds from CFHT/ESPaDOnS and Venus Express/VIRTIS in April 2014, ICARUS 2017 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.017 ·Machado+2020: Mars Atmospheric Wind Map Along the 2018 Global Dust Storm, EPSC2020-221 ·Maattanen+2010: Mapping the mesospheric CO2 clouds on Mars: MEx/OMEGA and MEx/HRSC observations and challenges for atmospheric models. Icarus 2010 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.05.017 ·Silva+2021: Characterising atmospheric gravity waves on the nightside lower clouds of Venus: a systematic analysis. A&A 2021 10.1051/0004-6361/202040193 ·Spiga+2012: Gravity waves, cold pockets and CO2 clouds in the Martian mesosphere. GRL 2012 10.1029/2011GL050343
- Publication:
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44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July
- Pub Date:
- July 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022cosp...44..366C