Database File Structure

Documentation Files

• mcd/docs This directory contains PostScript files which can be used to print further copies of the User Manual (um.ps) and the Detailed Design Document (ddd.ps). It also contains subdirectories (um and ddd) which have hypertext versions of these documents, suitable for viewing in a WWW browser. Open the file mcd/docs/index.html in your browser to view these.

Software Files

• mcd/mcdgm This contains FORTRAN source code for the MCDGM interface (see Lewis and Collins, 1999a). Instructions for building the software, to produce the mcdgm executable, are given in the User Manual.

  Issuing the unix command ls mcd/mcdgm should produce the following list of files (or something very similar):

  Changes        cospa.f        grid4.f        min2d.f        profi.f 
  Changes-1.0-4  ctime.f        grwpb.f        mount.f        solls.f 
  Makefile       dstep.f        ltime.f        ner2d.f        var2d.f 
  Makefile.DEC   eofpb.f        max2d.f        ner3d.f        var3d.f 
  Makefile.SGI   gasdv.f        mcdgm.f        opend.f        
  atime.f        getsi.f        mgthm.f        orbit.f
  

• mcd/grads Some sample GrADS scripts which plot MCD data (see Lewis and Collins 1999a). Descriptions of the scripts are given in the User Manual.

  Issuing the unix command ls mcd/mcdgm should produce the following list of files:

  anim_tsurf.gs   map_windt.gs    section_lat.gs  zonal_tuv.gs    
  map_ps.gs       profile.gs      zonal_sdtuv.gs
  

Data Files

The MCD data are stored in various files in two directories.

• mcd/data_s The full MCD dataset derived from model runs with ``standard dust'' parameters.
• mcd/data_b The full MCD dataset derived from model runs with ``bright dust'' parameters.

To determine which set of dust properties is used, a symbolic link mcd/data is created to point to either data_s for ``standard dust'' or data_b for ``bright dust,'' e.g.

cd mcd
ln -s data_s data or ln -s data_b data

The file naming convention is as follows:

• The first 3 characters denote the dust scenario. The various scenarios are explained in an appendix to this document.
  • ds2 indicates a dust storm with optical depth 2.
  • ds5 indicates a dust storm with optical depth 5.
  • low indicates low dust data.
  • vik indicates Viking scenario data.
• The next 3 characters indicate the season number. The northern hemisphere spring equinox is at $L_S=0^\circ$, with northern summer solstice at $L_S=90^\circ$, autumn equinox at $L_S=180^\circ$ and winter solstice at $L_S=270^\circ$.
  • s01 is season 1, $L_S=0^\circ-30^\circ$.
  • s02 is season 2, $L_S=30^\circ-60^\circ$.
  • s03 is season 3, $L_S=60^\circ-90^\circ$.
  • s04 is season 4, $L_S=90^\circ-120^\circ$.
  • s05 is season 5, $L_S=120^\circ-150^\circ$.
  • s06 is season 6, $L_S=150^\circ-180^\circ$.
  • s07 is season 7, $L_S=180^\circ-210^\circ$.
  • s08 is season 8, $L_S=210^\circ-240^\circ$.
  • s09 is season 9, $L_S=240^\circ-270^\circ$.
  • s10 is season 10, $L_S=270^\circ-300^\circ$.
  • s11 is season 11, $L_S=300^\circ-330^\circ$.
  • s12 is season 12, $L_S=330^\circ-360^\circ$.
  • all indicates that the file contains data for the whole year, e.g. the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) data for the large-scale variability model.
• The next 2 characters indicate the type of data in the file.
  • me indicates mean data.
  • sd indicates standard deviation data.
  • eo indicates EOF data.
• The last 4 characters (the filename extension) indicate the type of file.
  • .dat is a DRS data file.
  • .dic is a DRS dictionary file.
  • .ctl is a GrADS descriptor file.

Hence the file mcd/data/viks04me.dat contains mean data for the Viking dust scenario for season 4.

Mean data files (me) contain 12 seasonal mean values (corresponding to 12 Solar times of day) for the variables shown in Table 2 and standard deviation data files (sd) contain seasonal standard deviation values of the variables in Table 3.

 

Mean variable symbol units 2-D or 3-D

CO₂ ice cover co2ice kg m^-2 2-D

Surface emissivity emis none 2-D

Surface temperature tsurf K 2-D

Surface pressure ps Pa 2-D

Atmospheric temperature t K 3-D

Zonal (East-West) wind u m s^-1 3-D

Meridional (North-South) wind v m s^-1 3-D

Atmospheric density rho kg m^-3 3-D

Boundary layer eddy kinetic energy q2 m² s^-2 3-D

 

Standard deviation symbol units 2-D or 3-D

CO₂ ice cover sdco2ice kg m^-2 2-D

Surface emissivity sdemis none 2-D

Surface temperature sdtsurf K 2-D

Surface pressure sdps Pa 2-D

Atmospheric temperature sdt K 3-D

Zonal (East-West) wind sdu m s^-1 3-D

Meridional (North-South) wind sdv m s^-1 3-D

Atmospheric density sdrho kg m^-3 3-D

Boundary layer eddy kinetic energy sdq2 m² s^-2 3-D

EOF data files (eo) contain normalized, multi-dimensional EOFs of density, zonal wind, meridional wind, temperature and surface pressure as well as some normalization factors, eigenvalues and principal component model coefficients. It is recommended that you use the software supplied to access and exploit the data in these files.

In addition there are three files, mountain.ctl, mountain.dat and mountain.dic which contain maps of the topographic height on Mars, smoothed to the resolution at which it is used by the model, and sub-grid scale standard deviation of the topographic height (useful for computing gravity wave perturbations). A final data file, cospar.dat, contains the COSPAR reference atmospheric profile, used for some output from the MCDGM interface (see Figure 6).