Observations of the Mars Polar Vortex

The winter season, westerly circumpolar flow of the Martian atmosphere, and of the terrestrial stratosphere, is concentrated into a jet whose latitude falls between 60 and 80 degrees. This jet is known as the polar vortex. The terrestrial polar vortex has been understood to be the dynamical controlling mechanism for ozone depletion in the polar stratosphere for more than a decade. More recently, the earth's stratospheric annular modes, which are essentially a weakening/strengthening oscillation of the polar vortex jet, have been shown to be coupled to and possibly even a driving mechanism for, the tropospheric Arctic Oscillation (AO) / North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phenomenon.