Robert Edmonds

The presence within the Martian atmosphere of thermodynamically important gravity (buoyancy) waves (GW) has been established from derived atmospheric temperature profiles, high altitude aerobraking-derived atmospheric densities, and observed cloud structures. Terrestrial atmospheric studies have shown that GWs play an important role in the large scale wind and temperature structures (Alexander et al. 2010). Recent analyses of Mars atmospheric temperature data (Heavens et al. 2010) have suggested that GWs might play a role in enhancing the occurrence of large scale dust storms. This proposed thesis research will investigate the thermodynamic effects of GWs upon the Martian atmosphere with special emphasis upon their dust storm implications.