MarsWRF Convective Vortex and Dust Devil Predictions for Gale Crater Over 3 Mars Years and Comparison With MSL-REMS Observations
MarsWRF Convective Vortex and Dust Devil Predictions for Gale Crater Over 3 Mars Years and Comparison With MSL-REMS Observations
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Date
2019-11-15
Authors
Newman, Claire E.
Kahanpää, H.
Richardson, M. I.
Martínez, Germán M.
Vicente‐Retortillo, Álvaro
Lemmon, Mark T.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4553-7624
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5885-236X
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AGU
Abstract
The daytime Martian atmosphere produces convective vortices called "dust devils" when they are dust‐filled. Vortices produce rapid pressure drops, which have been detected in Gale Crater by Mars Science Laboratory instruments. Observed vortex pressure drops are compared with vortex activity predicted using a numerical model, MarsWRF. Because vortices are far smaller than MarsWRF's grid spacing, the model can't predict them directly. Instead, the theory of Rennó et al. (1998) is used to calculate "dust devil activity" (DDA) – a measure of vortex activity – based on the large‐scale atmospheric state.
Description
Keywords
Dust devils,
Mars (Planet)
Citation
Newman C.E., Richardson M.I., Kahanpaa H., Martinez G.M., Martinez G.M., Vicente-Retortillo A., and Lemmon M.T. 2020. "MarsWRF Convective Vortex and Dust Devil Predictions for Gale Crater Over 3 Mars Years and Comparison With MSL-REMS Observations". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.