Overview of the Mars PCM

The Mars PCM

In a nutshell, the Mars Planetary Climate Model is a General Circulation Model (GCM) of the Martian atmosphere.

Reference Versions of the Mars PCM

Bla bla bla... mention here the various configurations? (GCM, 1D, Mesoscale)

GCM version 5

This is the version of the model that was used to generate Mars Climate Database version 5.3. In practice, the main features of these simulations are:

• a horizontal grid (longitudexlatitude) resolution of 64x48, with 49 vertical layers (when including the thermosphere)
• a dust cycle where column dust opacity is imposed via input dust scenarios.

GCM version 6

This is the latest version of the model that was used to generate Mars Climate Database version 6.1. In practice, the main features of these simulations are:

• a horizontal grid (longitudexlatitude) resolution of 64x48, with 73 vertical layers (when including the thermosphere)
• a dust cycle where column dust opacity is driven by dust scenarios but via injection of rocket dust storms and the use of mountain slope dust re-injection parametrization.

Getting started

Most likely you will want to install and run the model, then you should start with this page. You can also check the User Manual provided with the source code (in the LMD.MARS directory), a copy is available online https://trac.lmd.jussieu.fr/Planeto/browser/trunk/LMDZ.MARS/user_manual.pdf, and also the "Getting Help" page on this wiki.