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MarsWRF Convective Vortex and Dust Devil Predictions for Gale Crater Over 3 Mars Years and Comparison With MSL‐REMS Observations
Author(s) -
Newman C. E.,
Kahanpää H.,
Richardson M. I.,
Martínez G. M.,
VicenteRetortillo A.,
Lemmon M. T.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: planets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9100
pISSN - 2169-9097
DOI - 10.1029/2019je006082
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , impact crater , vortex , atmospheric sciences , convection , atmosphere of mars , environmental science , meteorology , geology , physics , astrobiology , martian
Key Points MarsWRF output combined with thermodynamic theory is used to predict spatiotemporal trends of dust devil activity (DDA) in Gale Crater Both modeled DDA and number of observed vortex pressure drops are greatest in local summer, peaking ~13:00–14:00, and smallest in winter Stronger sensible heat fluxes and winds drive a rise in DDA as MSL climbs, but vortex numbers rise faster, unless a threshold DDA is used