A Statistical Analysis of Martian Dust Storms Using the Landau Probability Distribution

Abstract

Martian dust storms are an intriguing phenomenon that significantly alters the dynamics and thermodynamics of the atmosphere. Through observational and numerical modeling, studies have obtained a comprehensive understanding of the dust storms. This study uses the Landau distribution to analyze several dust storms and investigate the peak, dust availability, duration, etc. As the time series plot of dust variability for dust storms shows a right-skewed distribution, many of their characteristics can be easily interpreted using this type of probability distribution. Four storms are considered across different Martian years (MY) and seasons, namely, LS=180°-270° in MY 34 (DS1); LS=310°-340° (DS2) in MY 35; LS=150°-170° (DS3), and LS=250°-280° (DS4) in MY 36. DS1 is a global dust storm, and DS2 is a large regional storm. Notably, DS3 is a small regional storm, and DS4 is a regional storm near the southern polar cap. The distribution fit captures the growth phase very well, but underestimates the peak. The decay phase is also captured quite well. But, the trend breaks for storms with slow growth (e.g., DS4). From the background dust values, an estimate of the dust opacity is obtained, which points out the influence of the season. The maximum intensity, peak, and duration of the storms can also be estimated from the fit. The proposed approach can be helpful in studying dust storms alongside conventional analysis.