Since the fly-bys of the 1960’s, there have been thirteen spacecraft  missions to Mars and numerous earth-based telescopic observations that point to a dominant role for the dust cycle in controlling the planet's climate system.  In recent years general circulation models have developed an increasing capability to study the lifting, transport, and sedimentation of dust around the planet.  Laboratory experiments and field programs have also illuminated the nature of how the atmosphere interacts with the surface to raise and deposit dust from the surface.  Thus, much work has been done from an observational, theoretical, and laboratory perspective, but there has been very little effort to bring these communities together to synthesize their results into a coherent picture of the Martian dust cycle. 

To remedy this situation, a 3-day workshop will be held at NASA Ames Research Center on September 15-17, 2009.  The workshop will consist of invited and contributed talks with adequate time for discussion.  Poster sessions are possible depending on the need.  The goal is to bring together observers, modelers, and experimentalists to discuss their work.  The overall objective of the workshop and its primary crosscutting theme is to understand the processes responsible for the lifting, transport, and removal of dust in the atmosphere. 

From the observing community we solicit talks focused on the nature of the present dust cycle including the location and strength of surface sources and sinks and how they vary in time; the properties of the surface (surface roughness, thermal inertia, albedo, slopes, etc.) that affect lifting; how dust is transported and distributed within the atmosphere and what thermal and dynamical effects it has; what particle sizes, composition and radiative properties best describe airborne dust; to what extent dust particles affect cloud formation and polar cap albedos; and what future observations are needed to better understand all of the above. From the modeling community we would like to assess the current state-of-the-art of local, regional, and global models; the physical processes they employ to simulate the dust cycle, including lifting mechanisms, transport in the atmosphere, sedimentation, and coupling to the water and CO_² cycles; and what success they have in simulating the observed seasonal and interannual variability of atmospheric dust.  From experimentalists we seek to know what new data have been obtained from wind tunnel experiments, laboratories, and field studies regarding the conditions leading to dust lifting and how the lifting flux depends on environmental conditions such as surface winds, electric fields, moisture content, and non-erodible material. 

Students are welcome to attend though no travel support is available.




Above image courtesy of Bruce Cantor, Malin Space Science Systems

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