A joint research group of RIKEN and Hokkaido University, Kobe University, Matsue National College of Technology, Kyushu University, and Kyoto University is using the RIKEN supercomputer "K computer" to perform ultra-high resolution simulations of dust in the atmosphere of Mars. Succeeded in reproducing a large amount of the devil (dust devil).
A dust whirlwind is a gust that rises in a spiral while rolling up sand and dust near the surface of the earth.Frequent dust storms on Mars can lead to large sandstorms, often observed as huge sandstorms that cover the entire Mars.On Mars, it is known that atmospheric dust affects climate change, and it was thought that one of the factors was that dust was swirled from the surface of the earth into the atmosphere by a dust whirlwind, but Mars observation alone is more than that. It was difficult to get the information.In addition, there is a large difference in the scale of the dust devil vortex and the atmospheric motion that produces it in order to proceed with atmospheric simulation on a computer, and simultaneous calculation requires enormous computational power, and conventional computers lack performance. rice field.
According to Hokkaido University, the research group incorporated the setting of the Martian atmosphere into the numerical model of the atmospheric simulation developed by RIKEN, and proceeded with the simulation for about 200 hours.As a result, we succeeded in generating more than 3,000 dust devils during the time when convective activity is most active.
Analysis of the obtained samples revealed that dust devils vary in size from a few meters to a few hundred meters in a horizontal radius and a maximum wind speed of a few meters to a few tens of meters per minute.
In the future, further research will be conducted to clarify the differences in the seasons and locations where dust devils occur, which is expected to contribute to the realization of Mars weather forecasts and the Mars exploration plan.
