Modeling output for "Orbital and In-Situ Investigation of Periodic Bedrock Ridges in Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars"

General information:

Please contact Claire Newman ([e-mail]) if you have questions about this dataset.

Title of Dataset: Modeling output for "Orbital and In-Situ Investigation of Periodic Bedrock Ridges in Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars"

Author Information:
Name: Claire E. Newman
Institution: Aeolis Research
Email: [e-mail]

Recommended citation for this dataset: Newman C.E. (2022) "Modeling output for Orbital and In-Situ Investigation of Periodic Bedrock Ridges in Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars", Dataset.

Summary taken from the paper "Orbital and In-Situ Investigation of Periodic Bedrock Ridges in Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars" by Kathryn M. Stack et al., accepted by JGR Planets for publication in 2022:

The orientation of Glen Torridon ridges was compared against outputs from the Mars Weather Research and Forecasting (MarsWRF) model. The MarsWRF model has been used to simulate the atmospheric circulation inside Gale crater to compare with MSL Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) wind measurements (Newman et al., 2017) and to assist in interpreting observations of dust devils (Newman et al., 2019) and aeolian changes (Baker et al., 2018, 2022). The output used in this work comes from the ‘vertical grid B’ simulations described in Newman et al. (2017), which provide the best match to observed winds and aeolian features. For Gale crater modeling, MarsWRF is run as a global model with nested higher-resolution domains that gradually increase the model’s horizontal resolution over smaller and smaller areas, finally providing output at ~400m grid spacing over the NW quadrant of the crater. The version of MarsWRF used here includes the treatment of radiative transfer in Mars’s dusty CO2 atmosphere, the seasonal CO2 cycle, subsurface-surface-atmosphere exchange of heat and momentum, and vertical mixing of heat and momentum, with surface properties (topography, roughness, albedo, etc.) based on orbital datasets and the seasonally-evolving, non-dust-storm “Mars Climate Database” dust distribution imposed (see Richardson et al., 2007 for more details).

The model outputs minute-by-minute predictions of surface friction velocity, u*, and atmospheric density at 1.5m, ρ, for 7 sols at each of 12 periods, which are equally spaced in planetocentric solar longitude (Ls) through the martian year. For each output, the surface wind stress, τ, is found from τ=ρu_*^2. We then adjusted the contribution of each period to account for the varying number of sols Mars spends around each period over its orbit, before producing wind stress roses, which thus represent the total wind stress and direction over a non-dust-storm Mars year.

Specifically, contained in the "outputsfullcorr.nc" netCDF data file are:

Variables:

PSFC: surface pressure (Pa)

T1_5: temperature at 1.5m height above the surface (K)

U1_5: zonal (west-to-east) wind at 1.5m height above the surface (m/s)

V1_5: meridional (south-to-north) wind at 1.5m height above the surface (m/s)

UST: surface friction speed (m/s)

Output times:

These variables are output from MarsWRF every minute starting at 15:10 Local True Solar Time in the first sol, with 1440 outputs per martian sol. There are 68 sols of data in total, with between 5 and 7 sols of data from each 30° Ls range, with the relative number chosen to reflect the fraction of a Mars year spent in that Ls range. In detail, the sols of the martian year used (where Ls=0 would be at the start of sol 1 and Ls=360 at the end of sol 669) are:

Ls~0°: sols 668-669 & 01-4

Ls~30°: sols 60-65

Ls~60°: sols 124-130

Ls~90°: sols 194-200

Ls~120°: sols 254-259

Ls~150°: sols 314-319

Ls~180°: sols 374-378

Ls~210°: sols 424-428

Ls~240°: sols 474-478

Ls~270°: sols 514-518

Ls~300°: sols 564-568

Ls~330°: sols 614-618

Output longitudes and latitudes are in file "static.nc":

The output is provided for a uniform grid of 19 longitudes by 15 latitudes. The longitudes and latitudes (variables XLONG and XLAT) in static.nc match those in outputsfullcorr.nc, but below are listed the longitudes and latitudes for convenience:

Longitudes (19): 137.321, 137.3292, 137.3374, 137.3457, 137.3539, 137.3621, 137.3704, 
    137.3786, 137.3868, 137.3951, 137.4033, 137.4115, 137.4198, 137.428, 
    137.4362, 137.4444, 137.4527, 137.4609, 137.4691 

Latitudes (15): -4.786012, -4.777781, -4.769551, -4.761321, -4.75309, -4.74486, -4.736629, -4.728399, -4.720168, -4.711937, -4.703707, -4.695477, -4.687246, -4.679016, -4.670785

static.nc also provides the local topographic height used by the model at each location (variable name HGT).

Output data format:

NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) is a set of software libraries and machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data. It is also a community standard for sharing scientific data. The Unidata Program Center supports and maintains netCDF programming interfaces for C, C++, Java, and Fortran. Programming interfaces are also available for Python, IDL, MATLAB, R, Ruby, and Perl.

See: https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/

References:

Baker, M.M., Lapotre, M.G.A., Minitti, M.E., Newman, C.E., Sullivan, R., Weitz, C.M., Rubin, D.R., Vasavada, A.R., Bridges, N.T., & Lewis, K.W. (2018). The Bagnold Dunes in Southern Summer: Active Sediment Transport on Mars Observed by the Curiosity Rover. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(17), 8853-8863. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079040.

Baker, M.M., Newman, C.E., Lapotre, M.G.A., Sullivan, R., Bridges, N.T., & Lewis, K.W. (2018). Coarse Sediment Transport in the Modern Martian Environment. Journal of Geophysical Research- Planets, 123(6), 1380-1394. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JE005513.

Baker, M.M., Newman, C.E., Sullivan, R., Minitti, M.E., Edgett, K.S., Fey, D., Ellison, D., & Lewis, K.W. (2022). Diurnal variability in aeolian sediment transport at Gale crater, Mars, J. Geophys. Res. (Plan.), 127, e2020JE006734, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JE006734.

Newman, C., Gómez‐Elvira, J. G., Marín, M., Navarro, S., Torres, J., Richardson, M. I., et al. (2017). Winds measured by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) during the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover's Bagnold Dunes Campaign and com- parison with numerical modeling using MarsWRF. Icarus, 291, 203–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.016

Newman, C. E., Kahanpää, H., Richardson, M. I., Martinez, G. M., Vicente‐Retortillo, A., & Lemmon, M. (2019). Convective vortex and dust devil predictions for Gale crater over 3 mars years and comparison with MSL‐REMS observations, J. Geophys. Res. (Plan.), 124, 3442– 3468, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JE006082.

Richardson, M.I., Toigo, A.D., & Newman, C.E. (2007). PlanetWRF: A general purpose, local to global numerical model for planetary atmospheric and climate dynamics, J. Geophys. Res. (Plan.), 112, E09001, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JE002825.