Assimilation on Mars

The planetary atmospheres group at Caltech has produced a global and planetary version of NCAR’s Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. We are using DART to attempt data assimilation within the Mars atmosphere using the Mars version of WRF, MarsWRF, as our GCM.

Primary Researcher: Greg Lawson

Prof. Mark Richardson at Caltech heads a planetary atmospheres group that has produced a global and planetary version of NCAR’s WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) Model. We are using DART to attempt data assimilation within the Mars atmosphere using the Mars version of WRF, MarsWRF, as our GCM. There exist at least two global mapping data sets appropriate for assimilation, both of which come from remote sensing platforms orbiting Mars: TES (Thermal Emission Spectrometer) flew aboard Mars Global Surveyor, and MCS (Mars Climate Sounder) is currently observing from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Temperature retrievals have been made from their measurements and could be assimilated, but we aim to directly assimilate their original radiance measurements via the appropriate forward operators for TES and MCS.

The figure shows the output from applying the DART-compliant forward operator for TES to our MarsWRF GCM. The black contours are Mars topography.

• C. Lee, W. G. Lawson, M. I. Richardson, J. L. Anderson, N. Collins, T. Hoar and M. Mischna, 2011
  Demonstration of ensemble data assimilation for Mars using DART, MarsWRF, and radiance observations from MGS TES. Journal of Geophysical Research, 116, E11011, 17 pp., doi:10.1029/2011JE003815