4. Results: dusty case up previous next
4.c. Circulation structure of convection

Figure 13 shows the circulation structure of thermal convection of the 6th day of the dusty case. (See also Appendix D for the results with a shorter output time interval) The vertical and horizontal scales of convective cells are about 5 km and 2 to 3 km, respectively. Thermal convection realized under the dusty condition is also km-size as that realized under the dust free condition. Potential temperature deviation associated with convective plumes is 1 to 2 K, which is smaller than that of the dust-free case (Figure 4 (left upper panel)).

The magnitude of vertical wind velocity is 10 to 15 msec-1, and that of horizontal wind velocity is about 10 msec-1. These values are smaller than those of the same period of time of the dust-free case (Figure 4 (right panel)). The ratio of updraft width to that of downdraft, the appearance of convective plume migration, and the way of mixing due to convective plumes are similar to those observed in the dust-free case.

The reason why the magnitude of wind velocity is small compared to that of dust free case is the decrease of convection layer thickness and the decrease of potential temperature deviation of convective plumes. Since the length of free acceleration decreases as the decrease of convective layer thickness, kinetic energy generation due to buoyancy force decreases. Since the depth of convection layer h and potential temperature deviation of convective plumes Δθ are about one half of those in the dust-free case, the magnitude of wind velocity estimated by (1) is also one half of that of the dust free case (about 10 msec-1). Potential temperature deviation associated with convective plumes can be estimated by using (5); the details are shown in section 4.c.i.

Figure 13: Time development of convective fields of the 6th day of the dusty case. Every one hour data from LT = 10:00 to 18:00 is shown. (Upper left) Potential temperature deviation form the horizontal mean. (Lower left) Turbulent diffusion coefficient. Areas with values lager than 1.0×10-5 m2 sec-1 are colored. (Upper right) Vertical wind velocity. (Lower right) Horizontal wind velocity. Contour interval of the wind panels is 5 msec-1. Note that color schemes for potential temperature and wind velocity are different form those of Figure 4. In Appendix D, data produced with the output time interval of 2 minutes are also shown.


A numerical simulation of thermal convection in the Martian lower atmosphere.
Odaka, Nakajima, Ishiwatari, Hayashi,   Nagare Multimedia 2001
up previous next