lmd_Hourdin1995_abstracts.html

1995 .

F. Hourdin, O. Talagrand, R. Sadourny, R. Courtin, D. Gautier, and C. P. Mckay. Numerical simulation of the general circulation of the atmosphere of Titan. Icarus, 117:358-374, October 1995. [ bib | DOI | ADS link ]

The atmospheric circulation of Titan is investigated with a general circulation model. The representation of the large-scale dynamics is based on a grid point model developed and used at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique for climate studies. The code also includes an accurate representation of radiative heating and cooling by molecular gases and haze as well as a parametrization of the vertical turbulent mixing of momentum and potential temperature. Long-term simulations of the atmospheric circulation are presented. Starting from a state of rest, the model spontaneously produces a strong superrotation with prograde equatorial winds (i.e., in the same sense as the assumed rotation of the solid body) increasing from the surface to reach 100 m sec ^-1 near the 1-mbar pressure level. Those equatorial winds are in very good agreement with some indirect observations, especially those of the 1989 occultation of Star 28-Sgr by Titan. On the other hand, the model simulates latitudinal temperature contrasts in the stratosphere that are significantly weaker than those observed by Voyager 1 which, we suggest, may be partly due to the nonrepresentation of the spatial and temporal variations of the abundances of molecular species and haze. We present diagnostics of the simulated atmospheric circulation underlying the importance of the seasonal cycle and a tentative explanation for the creation and maintenance of the atmospheric superrotation based on a careful angular momentum budget.

F. Hourdin, F. Forget, and O. Talagrand. The sensitivity of the Martian surface pressure and atmospheric mass budget to various parameters: A comparison between numerical simulations and Viking observations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100:5501-5523, March 1995. [ bib | DOI | ADS link ]

The sensitvity of the Martian atmospheric circulation to a number of poorly known or strongly varying parameters (surface roughness length, atmospheric optical depth, CO2 ice albedo, and thermal emissivity) is investigated through experiments performed with the Martian version of the atmospheric general circulation model of Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, with a rather coarse horizontal resolution (a grid with 32 points in longitude and 24 points in latitude). The results are evaluated primarily on the basis of comparisons with the surface pressure records of the Viking mission. To that end, the records are decomposed into long-period seasonal variations due to mass exchange with the polar caps and latitudinal redistribution of mass, and short-period variations due to transient longitudinally propagating waves. The sensitivty experiments include a 5-year control simulation and shorter simulations (a little longer than 1 year) performed with 'perturbed' parameter values. The main conclusions are that (1) a change of horizontal resolution (twice as many points in each direction) mostly affects the transient waves, (2) surface roughness lengths have a significant impact on the near-suface wind and, as a matter of consequence, on the latitudinal redistribution of mass, (3) atmospheric dust optical depth has a significant impact on radiative balance and dynamics, and (4) CO2 ice albedo and thermal emissivity strongly influence mass exchange between the atmosphere and the polar caps. In view of this last conclusion, an automatic procedure is implemented through which the albedo and emissivity of each of the two polar caps are determined, together with the total (i.e., including the caps) atmospheric CO2 content, in such a way as to get the closest fit of the model to the Viking pressure measurements.