A modern-day Mars climate in the Met Office Unified Model: dry simulations

Abstract

We present results from the Met Office Unified Model (UM), a world-leading climate and weather model, adapted to simulate a dry Martian climate. We detail the adaptation of the basic parameterisations and analyse results from two simulations, one with radiatively active mineral dust and one with radiatively inactive dust. These simulations demonstrate how the radiative effects of dust act to accelerate the winds and create a mid-altitude isothermal layer during the dusty season. We validate our model through comparison with an established Mars model, the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique planetary climate model (PCM), finding good agreement in the seasonal wind and temperature profiles but with discrepancies in the predicted dust mass mixing ratio and conditions at the poles. This study validates the use of the UM for a Martian atmosphere, highlighting how the adaptation of an Earth general circulation model (GCM) can be beneficial for existing Mars GCMs and provides insight into the next steps in our development of a new Mars climate model.

20 pages, 12 figures with additional appendix figures

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• Eight-year Climatology of Dust Optical Depth on Mars
• The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part II: Moist Cases -- The Two Waterworlds
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• 3D simulations of the Archean Earth including photochemical haze profiles
• 3D simulations of TRAPPIST-1e with varying CO2, CH4 and haze profiles
• Lightning activity on a tidally locked terrestrial exoplanet in storm-resolving simulations for a range of surface pressures