Martian Gravity Waves

[Robert Edmonds]

Hi again... so I've been updating/changing the model I've made over the years and talked about here. I have recently converted the model initially set for Earth and converted it to Mars for my research.

Below I have attempted to reproduce Martian gravity waves. The image below is vertical slice of the Martian atmosphere. Wind is moving air from left to right. The small mountain is imposed at center and at the bottom of the image. The whole image is 120 km across and 30 km tall. The image shows the deviation of the atmosphere in temperature from its stable state.

The initial atmosphere is all traveling at 30 m/s. Perhaps unwisely I quickly impose the mountain, setting off a shock that eventually dissipates (after reflecting off the boundaries a few times). However, you quickly will also notice the wind that initially encounters the wall is lifted, and thus adiabatically cools. This rising air will then fall, warming, producing the warmer feature behind. This process repeats, and further perturbs the atmosphere downwind (creating the repeating pattern of cool and warm air).

I know not exactly storm chasing related but I hope you don't mind me sharing since the initial inspiration for the model was because of my passion for storm chasing. Happy to explain more if desired, and as always, I welcome questions.

 

[J Gontesky]

That is really cool.

What does the simulation look like if the mountain is there the whole time?

 

[Robert Edmonds]

That is really cool.

What does the simulation look like if the mountain is there the whole time?

So I'm running the simulation to equilibrium as we speak... Just looking at some stuff this morning, a nasty (fake) reflection off the top of the model develops. What's suppose to happen is the repeating pattern of warm and cold continues upward until it get's damped higher up. I may run the model with a larger top. I'll post more as I get more simulations run and completed.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

That is really cool.

What does the simulation look like if the mountain is there the whole time?

Didn't forget... the issue I'm having has been stubborn to kill. Anyhow, here's what it currently looks like after running for ~9hrs (simulation time). You can see the reflection off the top, I've tried a myriad of things, while improved, it's still not where I like. The flow is 15m/s rather than 30m/s in post above.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

This looks great Robert. Can you explain what the colors mean? I have a guess that it's temperature, but I want to make sure.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

This looks great Robert. Can you explain what the colors mean? I have a guess that it's temperature, but I want to make sure.

Thanks, forgot to mention. It's the temperature perturbation, red/blue is ~+/-5K. It uses a 'smoothed' mars exploration rover (MER) derived background temperature profile (i.e. T_{0}}).