Middle atmosphere polar warmings on Mars: Simulations and study on the validation with sub-millimeter observations

Abstract

Temperature inversions and the warmings over the winter poles in the Martian atmosphere occur due to the adiabatic heating associated with the downward branch of the Hadley circulation. We present results of simulations with a recently developed GCM which suggest that the warmings are the manifestations of the global meridional transport, and are strongly related to atmospheric eddies (planetary waves and tides). To date, sets of data required for the validation of the predicted warmings and the corresponding circulation patterns do not extend far enough into the middle atmosphere of Mars. This motivated our radiative and retrieval simulations to demonstrate that sub-millimeter observations can provide the required fields to validate and constrain the GCM results.