Shabari Basu
| Title | Assistant Research Scientist |
| Research Interests | Physics of planetary atmospheres and climate systems, with emphasis on Mars; numerical modeling of atmospheres and climate systems (General Circulation Models). |
| Education | Ph.D., Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, 2005 |
| Office Location | 1010B |
| Office Phone | 979-845-1482 |
| Fax | 979-862-4466 |
| shabari@tamu.edu | |
| Mailing Address |
Department of Atmospheric Sciences Texas A&M University 3150 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3150 |
Research Interests
I am interested in the physics of planetary atmospheres and climate systems. The current focus is on the Martian atmosphere. We have developed a general circulation model for Mars. We are interested in different aspects of the Martian atmosphere- dust, CO2 cycle, water cycle, clouds, and polar ice caps.
The most recent work has been on modeling the dust cycle on Mars. Dust is a major moderator of the Martian climate. During large dust storms, the visible optical depth of the global atmospheres can exceed unity, obscuring surface features, while global mean air temperatures at midlevels can increase by tens of Kelvins. A significant annual cycle of atmospheric dustiness has been observed from the surface and from orbit with minimum opacities during late northern spring, and maximum opacities in mid-southern spring.
On the basis of the model results and thermal and imaging data, we suggest that the background dust haze on Mars is maintained by convective processes, specifically, dust devils. Combining the convective scheme and high-threshold stress lifting, we obtain a "best fit" multiyear simulation, which produces a realistic thermal state in northern spring and summer and, for the first time, spontaneous and inter-annually variable global dust storms. With the prognostic surface dust deposit experiments, we found that the global storms are shut off when the active lifting centers are exhausted of dust, when these centers are replenished by dust fall out and dust devils, the global storms start off again. The inter-annual variability is much greater with the inclusion of finite surface dust deposits.
Selected Publications
Shabari Basu, M. I. Richardson, R. J. Wilson, “Simulations of the Martian Dust Cycle using the GFDL Mars GCM”, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2004je02243, November, 2004.
J. Fisher, M. I. Richardson, C. Newman, M. Szwast, C. Graf, Shabari Basu et al., ‘A Survey of Martian dust devil activity using Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Images’, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol 110, March 2005.
Shabari Basu, R. J. Wilson, M. I. Richardson, “Spontaneous and variable global dust storms on Mars”, in preparation
Shabari Basu, M. I. Richardson, R. J. Wilson, “Global Dust Storms and the Seasonal Dust Cycle on Mars Simulated using a GCM with an Evolving Surface Dust Distribution”, in preparation for submission to Journal of Geophysical Research, 2005.
Shabari Basu, M. I. Richardson, R. J. Wilson, “High Resolution Simulations of Global Dust Storms on Mars”, in preparation.
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