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Intense polar temperature inversion in the middle atmosphere on Mars

Nature Geoscience volume 1, pages 745–749 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Current understanding of weather, climate and global atmospheric circulation on Mars is incomplete, in particular at altitudes above about 30 km. General circulation models for Mars1,2,3,4,5,6 are similar to those developed for weather and climate forecasting on Earth and require more martian observations to allow testing and model improvements. However, the available measurements of martian atmospheric temperatures, winds, water vapour and airborne dust are generally restricted to the region close to the surface and lack the vertical resolution and global coverage that is necessary to shed light on the dynamics of Mars’ middle atmosphere at altitudes between 30 and 80 km (ref. 7). Here we report high-resolution observations from the Mars Climate Sounder instrument8 on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter9. These observations show an intense warming of the middle atmosphere over the south polar region in winter that is at least 10–20 K warmer than predicted by current model simulations. To explain this finding, we suggest that the atmospheric downwelling circulation over the pole, which is part of the equator-to-pole Hadley circulation, may be as much as 50% more vigorous than expected, with consequences for the cycles of water, dust and CO2 that regulate the present-day climate on Mars.

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Figure 1: A cross-section of the atmospheric temperature in the southern hemisphere of Mars for mid-southern winter (Ls=136∘, 16 Nov 2006).
Figure 2: Individual temperature profiles near the south pole.
Figure 3: Comparison of measured and model-generated temperature profiles.
Figure 4: Tidal and gravity wave structure in vertical temperature profiles for northern mid-latitudes (35∘ N to 53∘ N) between LS=150∘ and 170∘.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge J. Shirley, C. Backus, T. Pavlicek and E. Sayfi for their contribution to the acquisition and analysis of MCS data. The research described in this letter was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and in the UK with the support of the Science, Technology and Facilities Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91103, USA

    D. J. McCleese, J. T. Schofield, W. A. Abdou, D. M. Kass, A. Kleinböhl & R. W. Zurek

  2. Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK

    F. W. Taylor, S. B. Calcutt, P. G. J. Irwin, P. L. Read & N. Teanby

  3. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91105, USA

    O. Aharonson, N. G. Heavens, W. G. Lawson & M. I. Richardson

  4. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA

    D. Banfield

  5. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98101, USA

    C. B. Leovy

  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

    S. R. Lewis

  7. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA

    D. A. Paige

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  1. D. J. McCleese
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Correspondence to D. J. McCleese or F. W. Taylor.

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McCleese, D., Schofield, J., Taylor, F. et al. Intense polar temperature inversion in the middle atmosphere on Mars. Nature Geosci 1, 745–749 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo332

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