Research Projects

The climate of Mars and Venus has been extensively studied through modelling and observations from planetary missions. On Mars, dust and water vapor and solar influx variations influence the atmosphere's spatio-temporal variability through radiative forcing. However, there is a lack of continuous long-term global in-situ observations near the surface, leading to a lack of understanding of the effects of boundary layer processes on dust lifting and photochemistry. Models are unable to quantify the contribution of dust devils to total dust loading in the atmosphere. There are gaps in our theoretical understanding of meteoroid ablation contributing to metallic ion layers. To address these issues, a Martian mesoscale model will be coupled with photochemistry to identify seasons and regions favoring dust devils and their quantitative contribution to Martian dust loading and their effect on local meteorology and photochemistry. On Venus, the atmospheric chemistry of the cloud region is still lacking. The major constituent of this region, H₂SO₄ cloud particles, may play a role in generating lightning, which is closely related to the ionosphere. The Venusian ionosphere has several unexplained features, such as a sporadic meteor layer. To address these gaps, a complex ion-neutral model will be developed incorporating mechanisms of charging and meteoroid ablation, constrained from radio occultation observations aboard Venus missions. This will enable the study of changes in the ionosphere due to solar events and the feasibility and influence of lightning on Venus atmospheric chemistry.

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