Planetary Group Seminar: Waves in terrestrial and planetary atmospheres (E. Yigit)

Atmospheric gravity waves are basic features of all planetary atmospheres. But what is their importance? In Earth's atmosphere they are primarily generated by various meteorological processes, propagate upward, produce substantial dynamical and thermal effects and variability in the mesosphere and thermosphere, and thus vertically couple the lower and upper atmosphere. Similar gravity wave processes are increasingly encountered in other planetary atmospheres. In this seminar, I will introduce how small-scale gravity waves are represented in global models and present a snapshot of recent progress in modeling their effects, specifically, in Earth and Martian atmospheres. Gravity wave processes in the context of NASA’s MAVEN mission are discussed.