Award details Atmospheric transport and mixing in past and present Martian climates, Mathematics – PhD (Funded)

Project Description

This studentship will explore the atmospheric circulation of Mars, with a view to improving our knowledge of its past climate and habitability. Mars’s atmosphere has many similarities with Earth; it has large-scale Hadley cells which transport heat and momentum from the equator towards the poles, while encircling the poles are bands of strong winds known as polar vortices. However, Mars is different in many ways. In the Martian winter, temperatures become so cold that the main atmospheric constituent, carbon dioxide, condenses at the polar caps. The striking layered deposits of ice, dust, and other trace species which have been observed in the polar ice caps may contain important information about the past climates of Mars. Reading this record requires us to understand how species are transported to and from the polar regions, and how this may have changed along with changes in the planet’s orbit. This project will explore this problem using a combination of basic physical principles, numerical modelling, and comparisons with spacecraft observations. The project will suit candidates with interests in fluid dynamics, planetary atmospheres, and climate.