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Science 24 July 1981:
Vol. 213. no. 4506, pp. 437 - 439
DOI: 10.1126/science.213.4506.437
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Articles

Thermal Tides in the Dusty Martian Atmosphere: A Verification of Theory

R. W. ZUREK 1 and C. B. LEOVY 2

1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91109
2 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98195

Major features of the daily surface pressure oscillations observed by the Viking landers during the two great dust storms on Mars in 1977 can be explained in terms of the classical atmospheric tidal theory developed for the earth's atmosphere. The most dramatic exception is the virtual disappearance of only the diurnal tide at Viking Lander 1 just before the second storm. This disappearance is attributed to destructive interference between the usually westward-traveling tide and an eastward-traveling diurnal Kelvin mode generated by orographically induced differential heating. The continuing Viking Lander 1 pressure measurements can be used with the model to monitor future great dust storms.

Submitted on January 9, 1981
Revised on April 6, 1981


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Mars Pathfinder Atmospheric Structure Investigation/Meteorology (ASI/MET) Experiment.
J. T. Schofield, J. R. Barnes, D. Crisp, R. M. Haberle, S. Larsen, J. A. Magalhães, J. R. Murphy, A. Seiff, and G. Wilson (1997)
Science 278, 1752-1758
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