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Mars dust storms - Interannual variability and chaosThe hypothesis is that the global climate system, consisting of atmospheric dust interacting with the circulation, produces its own interannual variability when forced at the annual frequency. The model has two time-dependent variables representing the amount of atmospheric dust in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Absorption of sunlight by the dust drives a cross-equatorial Hadley cell that brings more dust into the heated hemisphere. The circulation decays when the dust storm covers the globe. Interannual variability manifests itself either as a periodic solution in which the period is a multiple of the Martian year, or as an aperiodic (chaotic) solution that never repeats. Both kinds of solution are found in the model, lending support to the idea that interannual variability is an intrinsic property of the global climate system. The next step is to develop a hierarchy of dust-circulation models capable of being integrated for many years.
Document ID
19930060269
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Ingersoll, Andrew P.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Lyons, James R.
(California Inst. of Technology Pasadena, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
June 25, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 98
Issue: E6
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
93A44266
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-1956
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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