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Gravity Wave Observations by the Mars Science Laboratory REMS Pressure Sensor and Comparison with Mesoscale Atmospheric Modeling with MarsWRF
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  • Scott D. Guzewich,
  • Manuel de la Torre Juarez,
  • Claire Newman,
  • Emily Mason,
  • Michael D. Smith,
  • Nina M Miller,
  • Alain SJ Khayat,
  • Henrik T Kahanpaa,
  • Daniel Viúdez-Moreiras,
  • Mark Ian Richardson
Scott D. Guzewich
NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Manuel de la Torre Juarez
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
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Claire Newman
Aeolis Research
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Emily Mason
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Michael D. Smith
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Nina M Miller
California State University, Long Beach
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Alain SJ Khayat
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland
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Henrik T Kahanpaa
Finnish Meteorological Institute
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Daniel Viúdez-Moreiras
Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC)
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Mark Ian Richardson
Aeolis Research
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Abstract

Surface pressure measurements on Mars have revealed a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena. The Mars Science Laboratory Rover Environmental Monitoring Station pressure sensor dataset is now the longest duration record of surface pressure on Mars. We use the first 2580 martian sols of measurements to identify atmospheric pressure waves with periods of tens of minutes to hours using wavelet analysis on residual pressure after the tidal harmonics are removed. We find these waves have a clear diurnal cycle with strongest activity in the early morning and late evening and a seasonal cycle with the strongest waves in the second half of the martian year (Ls = 180-360°). The strongest such waves of the entire mission occurred during the Mars Year 34 global dust storm. Comparable atmospheric waves are identified using atmospheric modeling with the MarsWRF general circulation model in a “nested” high spatial resolution mode. With the support of the modeling, we find these waves best fit the expected properties of inertia-gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths of O(100s) of km.