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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. |