Solar System dynamics and global-scale dust storms on Mars

Global-scale dust storms occur during the southern summer season on Mars in some Mars years but not in others. We present an updated catalog of Mars years including such storms (n = 9) and Mars years without global-scale storms (n = 11) through the year 2013. A remarkable relationship links the occurrence and non-occurrence of global-scale dust storms on Mars with changes in the orbital angular momentum of Mars with respect to the Solar System barycenter (LMars). All of the global-scale dust storms became planet-encircling in both latitude and longitude during periods when LMars was increasing or near maxima. Statistical significance at the 1% level is obtained for the clustering tendency of LMars phases for the 5 mid-season storms with Ls ranging from 208° to 262° (1956, 1971, 1982, 1994, and 2007). The 11 Mars years without global-scale dust storms exhibit mainly decreasing and minimum values of LMars during the first half of the dust storm season; this tendency is statistically significant at the 5% level. A systematic progression is present in the phasing of the solar irradiance and LMars waveforms for the global-scale storm years. LMars phases for the early season global-scale storms of 1977 and 2001 are advanced in phase with respect to those of the mid-season storms, while the phase for the late season storm of 1973 is delayed with respect to those of the mid-season storms cluster. Factors internal to the Mars climate system, such as a spatial redistribution of surface dust from year to year, must be invoked to account for the non-occurrence of global-scale dust storms in five years (1986, 2003, 2005, 2009, and 2013) when the LMars phase was otherwise favorable. Our results suggest that the occurrence of increasing or peak values of LMars immediately prior to and during the Mars dust storm season may be a necessary-but-not-sufficient condition for the initiation of global-scale dust storms on Mars.