A Network of Surface Pressure Observations to Constrain Aerosol Forcing in Mars Climate Models

The evolving distribution of radiatively active dust and water ice clouds plays a major role in modulating the seasonal and interannual variation in the thermal forcing of the Martian atmosphere. Thermal tides are the global-scale atmospheric response to the diurnally varying thermal forcing due to aerosol heating within the atmosphere and radiative and convective heat transfer from the surface. The tide includes westward propagating (sun-synchronous)
waves driven in response to solar heating, as well as nonmigrating waves that result from zonal variations in the thermotidal forcing caused by variations in topography and surface thermal properties and in the distribution of aerosols (dust and water ice clouds).