Baroclinic waves observed on Mars from InSight data

Abstract

Baroclinic waves has been observed in the Martian atmosphere, and their periods have been calculated by means of spectral analysis of the pressure and wind velocity data, provided by the InSight mission for the time periods of the spring and winter seasons. For the spring time, the pressure spectrum shows a peak at the frequency of 0.246 (4 sol). For the winter time, the spectra of the pressure and wind velocity show a dominant peak at the frequency of ∼0.15 (6.7 sol), and a smaller peak at the frequency of ∼0.435 (2.3 sol). The results of this study are consistent with those determined in previous studies from spectral analysis of the Viking 2 data, and it is expected that a further analysis of the results determined in this study will provide a valuable insight into the seasonal changes of the atmospheric structure and circulation, which may be useful to fit General Circulation Models of the Martian atmosphere. However, a general understanding of Martian baroclinic phenomena only will be achieved with a combination of data from multiple Martian midlatitude stations in future missions.