[Baps] Seminar Fri noon: Helen Wang, Dust Storms on Mars

[Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay]

Special Atomic and Molecular Physics Seminar
Friday, March 25, 2005, 12:00
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Pratt Conference Room (go in the main entrance then down the stairs), 60
Garden St.

Dr. Huiqun (Helen) Wang
California Institute of Technology

Flushing Dust Storms on Mars

Mars is famous for its dust storms, which range in size from a few meters to
the whole planet. Some Martian dust storms display a curved band structure
which is analogous to the cloud band in terrestrial baroclinic storms. It
was suspected that these dust bands are associated with baroclinic
instability in the Martian atmosphere. The spatial and temporal
distributions of these "frontal dust storms" will be discussed. The image
observations are linked to temperature observations collected
simultaneously. A subset of frontal dust storms can transport dust to the
low latitudes through confined longitudinal channels. We call them "flushing
dust storms". The development of flushing dust storm involves several
important circulation components in the Martian atmosphere, including the
Hadley circulation, traveling baroclinic waves, and diurnal tides. Numerical
results show that the synchronization between a baroclinic storm and the
diurnal tide is an important factor for the development of flushing dust
storm, and the seasonal distribution of flushing dust storms is closely
related to the traveling waves in the Martian atmosphere.

Directions
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mapsdir.html