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Diurnal Kelvin wave in the atmosphere of Mars: Towards an understanding of ’stationary’ density structures observed by the MGS accelerometer
Author(s) -
Forbes Jeffrey M.,
Hagan Maura E.
Publication year - 2000
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 - 10.1029/2000gl011850
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , accelerometer , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric tide , kelvin wave , atmosphere of mars , geophysics , wavenumber , geology , atmospheric sciences , astrobiology , physics , geodesy , meteorology , martian , thermosphere , ionosphere , optics , quantum mechanics
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) accelerometer measurements near 125 km [ Keating et al., 1998] reveal longitudinal density structures comprised of zonal wavenumbers s =1 and s =2 which are interpreted as stationary waves. An alternative interpretation is that these structures may be nonmigrating tides which appear as quasi‐stationary features due to restricted sampling in local time, and which owe their existence to Mars' topography. One of these oscillations, the diurnal Kelvin wave, is investigated here. It gives rise to density perturbations similar to the measurements. Other nonmigrating tides may also make important contributions.