Apply the intended, corrected dispersion relation in c. A uniform mean zonal wind gives . Stationarity with therefore requires eastward intrinsic phase speed . With ,
The period determines and . Hence
Figure 1.
Equatorial trapping and vertical phase of the stationary Martian Kelvin-wave example
. The original calculation uses an eastward intrinsic speed of 20 metres per second. The Gaussian amplitude has a latitude scale of 11.6 degrees; the density-weighted vertical velocity has a vertical wavelength of 12.6 kilometres. The plotted negative vertical wavenumber corresponds to upward intrinsic energy propagation. Details.
A storm within roughly of the equator has substantial projection on the Gaussian mode. There is no sharp latitude cutoff: gives amplitude and the amplitude latitude is about . Forcing outside that core has progressively weaker overlap.
The intrinsic wave is eastward even though its observed ground pattern is stationary; westward advection cancels its phase propagation. Its intrinsic period is about Earth days. The inferred puts it in the short-vertical-wavelength branch, well below the long-wave speed . For upward energy radiation, must be positive, which selects for positive : vertical phase propagation is then downward. Dust absorption supplies thermal forcing with a zonally asymmetric component; the response does not imply that dust itself moves eastward at the intrinsic phase speed.
Southern spring to summer, the warmer perihelion-side dust season, is a reasonable climatological window for such a regional storm. This seasonal inference uses observed dust climatology, not the dispersion relation: the specified wind and wave parameters alone do not determine a unique season, and individual regional storms can occur outside that window.[ref]