Chinese researchers achieve thorough simulation of Martian dust cycle

BEIJING -- A group of Chinese researchers has carried out a comprehensive simulation of the Martian dust cycle, based on their self-developed next-generation Mars general-circulation model named GoMars.

According to a research article published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, the researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have managed to reveal the behavior of Martian dust and have laid the cornerstone for dependable Martian weather forecasts and climate projections by rigorously evaluating the simulation performance of GoMars.

Often hailed as Earth's closest sibling in the solar system, the red planet also harbors hazards including an ultra-thin atmosphere, intense radiation and fierce dust storms. As dramatized in the movie "The Martian," a single ferocious maelstrom could cripple hardware and doom any human mission on this planet.

Notably, planet-wide dust storms that erupt without warning on Mars are typical examples of extreme weather and the prime driver of the dramatic year-to-year swings that shape the Martian climate.

Although Mars is the most extensively observed planet other than Earth, existing datasets still suffer from marked gaps in temporal continuity, spatial coverage and resolution.

Therefore, a numerical atmospheric model is very useful as it can fill in blind spots and deliver a complete picture of the Martian dust cycle, enabling end-to-end simulation and prediction of the red planet's climate system.

During the Chinese study, researchers captured the Martian atmosphere's year-to-year variability, which has long been recognized as one of the major difficulties in Martian modeling.

The team completed a 50-Martian-year dust-cycle simulation and used GoMars to reproduce the entire life cycle of airborne dust.

With in-situ measurements still sparse, the researchers benchmarked GoMars' surface wind-stress dust lifting flux against advanced models such as MarsWRF. The result showed robust agreement between these two models in terms of both seasonal phasing and geographic pattern.

The team emphasized that GoMars is capable of spontaneously producing simulated planet-encircling dust storms, pinning down their onset dates, epicenters and transport corridors in close accord with the sparse but decisive observations of specific Martian years.

The researchers disclosed that they will also integrate the Martian water cycle into the model to dissect the interaction between dust and water vapor.

Their ultimate goal is to evolve GoMars into an operational system that ingests real-time measurements from the upcoming Tianwen 3 mission and issues daily weather briefings for the red planet.