Atmospheric Tides in the Middle and Upper Atmosphere of Mars at Northern High Latitudes: A Comparison of MAVEN‐EUVM and MRO‐MCS Observations With Model Results

Abstract

Much of the variability in the Martian thermosphere can be attributed to vertically propagating atmospheric tides that are known to achieve significant amplitudes in this region. Concurrent observations from different altitudes have been used previously to discern the vertical propagation characteristics of tides but have primarily focused on low latitudes. The spectrum of tides and their vertical evolution are thereby less constrained at high latitudes. Few studies that have focused on high latitudes identified wavenumber‐3 structures which were interpreted to originate mainly from the non‐migrating tides SE1 and DE2. This paper presents the first analysis of MAVEN‐EUVM solar occultation observations to deduce atmospheric tides in the Martian thermosphere. These are compared to tides observed by MRO‐MCS in the middle atmosphere for six cases at high northern latitudes. To identify vertical propagation, wave signatures in the middle and upper atmosphere are compared and are found to be dominated by a mix of zonal wavenumbers‐2 and ‐3 in fixed local time. MCS observations show eastward propagating tides dominate, specifically highlighting SE1 near 76 km. Additionally, these observations indicate the presence of stationary planetary waves and terdiurnal tides. Mars Climate Database also indicates the presence of SE1, DE2, DE1, S0, TW1, and T0 tides. A change in the dominant wavenumber component with local time is seen, which is attributed to the presence of all three diurnal, semidiurnal and terdiurnal components at these latitudes. The significant decrease in the diurnal tide amplitude indicates the effect of zonal mean wind on vertical propagation.