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Insight into the seasonal asymmetry of nonmigrating tides on Mars
Author(s) -
Moudden Y.,
Forbes J. M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl059535
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , asymmetry , geology , astrobiology , environmental science , climatology , physics , quantum mechanics
In this paper we demonstrate how the interplay between surface‐generated tidal components and those excited by longitudinally varying solar absorption due to dust can explain the seasonal asymmetry of nonmigrating tides as seen in middle‐atmosphere Mars Climate Sounder's observations. This seasonal asymmetry, which is consistent in all 3 years of available observations, is not readily explained by the current theory of nonmigrating tides on Mars. Sources traditionally include the changes in the Martian topography and the nonuniformity of the surface thermal properties. We show that the seasonal asymmetry can be explained by the destructive interference from an asymmetric tidal component forced by the wave number patterns in dust opacity in the northern low latitudes.