Abstract
In this short paper, the combined effect of global dust storms and the oblateness on the mean seasonal daily insolations at the Martian surface is investigated. Due to the flattening, the mean summertime insolation is increased at equatorial and low latitudes, decreased at mid- and high latitudes. When comparing a spherical with an oblate planet Mars, it is found that the percentage differences of the mean summer daily insolations are dependent upon the optical depths (Τ) considered. For an atmosphere without aerosols, the maximum percentage differences are respectively equal to + 0.05 and − 0.2%; at Τ = 3.0 the corresponding values amount to about 0.1 and 2%. In winter, the mean daily insolations are decreased over the entire latitudinal interval, where the maximum values are found at polar region latitudes; at e.g. a latitude of 85 ‡ the loss of solar energy enhances from 2 (Τ = 0.0) to more than 30% (Τ = 3.0). The mean annual daily insolation is maximally reduced by about 0.5 and 2% for optical thicknesses of 0.0 and 3.0, respectively.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brinkman, A.W. and McGregor, J.: 1979, Icarus 38, 479.
Levine, J.S., Kraemer, D.R., and Kuhn, W.R.: 1977, Icarus 31, 136.
Martin, L.J.: 1984, Icarus 57, 317.
Pollack, J.B., Colburn, D., Flasar, F.M., Carlston, C.E., Pidek, D., and Kahn, R.: 1979, J. Geophys. Res. 84, 2929.
Pollack, J.B. and Toon, O.B.: 1982, Icarus 50, 259.
Toon, O.B., Pollack, J.B., Ward, W.R., Burns, J.A., and Bilski, K.: 1980, Icarus 44, 552.
Van Hemelrijck, E.: 1982a, ‘The Oblateness Effect on the Solar Radiation Incident at the Top of the Atmosphere of Mars’, in Proceedings of the Workshop on the Planet Mars, Leeds 1982, ESA special publication SP-185, p. 59.
Van Hemelrijck, E.: 1982b, Bull. Acad. R. Belg., Cl. Sci. 68, 675.
Van Hemelrijck, E.: 1982c, Icarus 51, 39.
Van Hemelrijck, E.: 1983, Solar Energy 31, 223.
Van Hemelrijck, E.: 1985, Earth, Moon, and Planets 33, 157.
Wilson, R.C.: 1982, J. Geophys. Res. 87, 4319.
Zurek, R.W.: 1981, Icarus 45, 202.
Zurek, R.W.: 1982, Icarus 50, 288.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Hemelrijck, E. The oblateness effect on the mean seasonal daily insolations at the martian surface during global dust storms. Earth Moon Planet 38, 209–216 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00121478
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00121478