Exploring ``Freeze Out'' on Mars using an Atmospheric Circulation Model

POSTER

Abstract

In addition to observational research, computational models like the NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Model (GCM) are used for efficient and often detailed representations of physical quantities. Using this GCM model, I am studying the effects of the distribution and density of frozen carbon-dioxide located at the polar caps. I have paid attention to the effects of the resulting ground temperature, surface pressure, and ground ice through time-based 2D and 3D animations. Also, I have modified the planet's axis between 5 and 50 degrees, changed the pressure by orders of magnitude from zero to two magnitudes, and studied conditions that result to a time frame of nearly 4 billion years ago. Preliminary results show that low pressures with low degrees of tilt have resulting pressures that approach zero, often ending simulations early. The remaining frozen carbon-dioxide remains airborne which could explain the possibility of an atmospheric phenomenon called a ``freeze out.'' This type of atmospheric computational data is often tedious and cumbersome to interface between numerical data and visual format. To counteract this problem, I have built an interface using IDL to interact with raw Mars GCM data. This interface allows researchers to increase the time to study actual science and minimize the time to find and decipher data to a visual format. This interface allows modification of initial variables to allow for cold starts of the Mars GCM model as well as create new maps and view them in an animation sequence to study changes in time.

Authors

  • Stanley C. Solomon

    University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rutgers University, Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, NASA, Duke University, FMA Research, Colorado State University, Dartmouth University, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Utah State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, China, University of California at Riverside, Physics Department, Colorado School of Mines, Physics Department, University of Utah, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USU, Society of Physics Students, Arizona State University, Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan, LANSCE-LC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Chemistry and Physics Dept., Virginia State University, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Chalk River Laboratories, Physics Dept, Oxford University, Physics Dept, Utah State University, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, DOE Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, National Center for Atmospheric Research