Midlatitude low-pressure cyclones in Earth's troposphere and their accompanying frontal systems develop, travel eastward, and decay preferentially within geographic regions designated as storm zones. These latitudinally and longitudinally confined zones of highly variable winds, and strong north-south transports are readily identified in circulation statistics associated with terrestrial weather systems. The question arises whether storm zones could occur on Mars. Like Earth, Mars is a rapidly rotating solid planet with a seasonably varying shallow atmosphere where traveling weather systems also exist. Both planets also exhibit large-scale orography and, in a broadly defined context, continentality. Given these fundamental similarities together with each planet's distinctive differences, detection and characterization of storm zones on Mars would provide further insight into fundamental underlying mechanisms, particularly regarding surface mechanical and thermal effects. Our numerical simulations with a Mars global atmospheric circulation model suggest that storm zones may exist during northern winter. Such zones would greatly influence poleward transports of heat, momentum, atmospheric water and suspended dust, hence playing key roles in Mars' dominant climatic cycles.
For a PostScript file of an earlier version (18 May 1995) of this paper and figures, click here.