Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions
International audience Martian polar regions host active regional wind circulations, such as the downslope katabatic winds which develop owing to near-surface radiative cooling and sloped topography. Many observations (stratigraphy from radar profiling, frost streaks, spectral analysis of ices) conc...
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ftsorbonneuniv:oai:HAL:hal-01643458v1 2024-09-15T17:47:19+00:00 Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions Spiga, Aymeric Smith, Isaac Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X) Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Planetary Science Institute Tucson (PSI) 2017 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/document https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/file/draft.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 en eng HAL CCSD Elsevier info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/document https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/file/draft.pdf doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 0019-1035 EISSN: 1090-2643 Icarus https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 Icarus, In press, ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021⟩ [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2017 ftsorbonneuniv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 2024-08-01T23:46:53Z International audience Martian polar regions host active regional wind circulations, such as the downslope katabatic winds which develop owing to near-surface radiative cooling and sloped topography. Many observations (stratigraphy from radar profiling, frost streaks, spectral analysis of ices) concur to show that aeolian processes play a key role in glacial processes in Martian polar regions. A spectacular manifestation of this resides in elongated clouds that forms within the polar spiral troughs, a series of geological depressions in Mars’ polar caps. Here we report mesoscale atmospheric modeling in Martian polar regions making use of five nested domains operating a model downscaling from horizontal resolutions of twenty kilometers to 200 m in a typical polar trough. We show that strong katabatic jumps form at the bottom of polar troughs with an horizontal morphology and location similar to trough clouds, large vertical velocity (up to +3 m/s) and temperature perturbations (up to 20 K) propitious to cloud formation. This strongly suggests that trough clouds on Mars are caused by katabatic jumps forming within polar troughs. This phenomena is analogous to the terrestrial Loewe phenomena over Antarctica’s slopes and coastlines, resulting in a distinctive “wall of snow” during katabatic events. Our mesoscale modeling results thereby suggest that trough clouds might be present manifestations of the ice migration processes that yielded the internal cap structure discovered by radar observations, as part of a “cyclic step” process. This has important implications for the stability and possible migration over geological timescales of water ice surface reservoirs—and, overall, for the evolution of Mars’ polar caps over geological timescales. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* HAL Sorbonne Université Icarus 308 197 208 |
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Open Polar |
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HAL Sorbonne Université |
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ftsorbonneuniv |
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English |
topic |
[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology |
spellingShingle |
[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology Spiga, Aymeric Smith, Isaac Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
topic_facet |
[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology |
description |
International audience Martian polar regions host active regional wind circulations, such as the downslope katabatic winds which develop owing to near-surface radiative cooling and sloped topography. Many observations (stratigraphy from radar profiling, frost streaks, spectral analysis of ices) concur to show that aeolian processes play a key role in glacial processes in Martian polar regions. A spectacular manifestation of this resides in elongated clouds that forms within the polar spiral troughs, a series of geological depressions in Mars’ polar caps. Here we report mesoscale atmospheric modeling in Martian polar regions making use of five nested domains operating a model downscaling from horizontal resolutions of twenty kilometers to 200 m in a typical polar trough. We show that strong katabatic jumps form at the bottom of polar troughs with an horizontal morphology and location similar to trough clouds, large vertical velocity (up to +3 m/s) and temperature perturbations (up to 20 K) propitious to cloud formation. This strongly suggests that trough clouds on Mars are caused by katabatic jumps forming within polar troughs. This phenomena is analogous to the terrestrial Loewe phenomena over Antarctica’s slopes and coastlines, resulting in a distinctive “wall of snow” during katabatic events. Our mesoscale modeling results thereby suggest that trough clouds might be present manifestations of the ice migration processes that yielded the internal cap structure discovered by radar observations, as part of a “cyclic step” process. This has important implications for the stability and possible migration over geological timescales of water ice surface reservoirs—and, overall, for the evolution of Mars’ polar caps over geological timescales. |
author2 |
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X) Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Planetary Science Institute Tucson (PSI) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Spiga, Aymeric Smith, Isaac |
author_facet |
Spiga, Aymeric Smith, Isaac |
author_sort |
Spiga, Aymeric |
title |
Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
title_short |
Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
title_full |
Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
title_fullStr |
Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Katabatic jumps in the Martian northern polar regions |
title_sort |
katabatic jumps in the martian northern polar regions |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/document https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/file/draft.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 |
genre |
Antarc* |
genre_facet |
Antarc* |
op_source |
ISSN: 0019-1035 EISSN: 1090-2643 Icarus https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 Icarus, In press, ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/document https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01643458/file/draft.pdf doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.021 |
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Icarus |
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308 |
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197 |
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208 |
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