On Mars too expect macroweather

Terrestrial atmospheric and oceanic spectra show drastic transitions at τw ≈ 10 days and τow ≈ 1 year, respectively; this has been theorized as the lifetime of planetary‐scale structures. For wind and temperature, the forms of the low‐ and high‐frequency parts of the spectra (macroweather and weathe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2014-11, Vol.41 (21), p.7694-7700
Main Authors: Lovejoy, Shaun, Muller, J.-P., Boisvert, J. P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospherics
Climatology
Data
Dynamical systems
Eddy kinetic energy
Energy
Energy flux
Energy transfer
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Flux
macroweather
Mars
Planets
Solar energy
Spectra
Structures
Temperature
Temperature effects
Turbulence
Turbulent energy
Viking lander spacecraft
Weather
Wind
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Summary:Terrestrial atmospheric and oceanic spectra show drastic transitions at τw ≈ 10 days and τow ≈ 1 year, respectively; this has been theorized as the lifetime of planetary‐scale structures. For wind and temperature, the forms of the low‐ and high‐frequency parts of the spectra (macroweather and weather) as well as the τw can be theoretically estimated, the latter depending notably on the solar‐induced turbulent energy flux. We extend the theory to other planets and test it using Viking lander and reanalysis data from Mars. When the Martian spectra are scaled by the theoretical amount, they agree very well with their terrestrial atmospheric counterparts. We discuss the implications for understanding planetary fluid dynamical systems. Key Points Mars has weather/macroweather transition very similar to Earth'sWe can calculate the transition scale from first principlesLander, Mars reanalysis, and terrestrial data agree
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2014GL061861