We present ~1.5 Mars Years (MY) of ozone vertical profiles, covering Ls = 163deg; in MY34 to Ls = 320deg; in MY35, a period which includes the 2018 global dust storm. Since April 2018, the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVIS) channel of the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) spectrometer aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has observed the vertical, latitudinal and seasonal distributions of ozone. Around perihelion, the relative abundance of ozone (and water from coincident NOMAD measurements) increases strongly together below ~40 km. Around aphelion, decreases in ozone abundance exist between 25-35 km coincident with the location of modelled peak water abundances. We report high latitude (above 55deg;), high altitude (40-55 km) equinoctial ozone enhancements in both hemispheres. The northern equinoctial high altitude enhancement is previously unobserved and forms prior to vernal equinox lasting for almost 100 sols (Ls ~350‑40deg), whereas the southern enhancement persists for over twice as long (Ls = ~5-140deg;). Both layers reform at autumnal equinox, with the northern layer at a lower abundance. These layers likely form through a combination of anti-correlation with water and the equinoctial meridional transport of O and H atoms to high-latitude regions. The descending branch of the main Hadley cell shapes the ozone distribution at Ls = 40-60deg;, with the possible signature of a northern hemisphere thermally indirect cell identifiable from Ls = 40-80deg;. The ozone retrievals presented here provide the most complete global description of Mars ozone vertical distributions as a function of season and latitude.

Surface pressure measurements on Mars have revealed a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena. The Mars Science Laboratory Rover Environmental Monitoring Station pressure sensor dataset is now the longest duration record of surface pressure on Mars. We use the first 2580 martian sols of measurements to identify atmospheric pressure waves with periods of tens of minutes to hours using wavelet analysis on residual pressure after the tidal harmonics are removed. We find these waves have a clear diurnal cycle with strongest activity in the early morning and late evening and a seasonal cycle with the strongest waves in the second half of the martian year (Ls = 180-360°). The strongest such waves of the entire mission occurred during the Mars Year 34 global dust storm. Comparable atmospheric waves are identified using atmospheric modeling with the MarsWRF general circulation model in a “nested” high spatial resolution mode. With the support of the modeling, we find these waves best fit the expected properties of inertia-gravity waves with horizontal wavelengths of O(100s) of km.

Solar occultations performed by the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) ultraviolet and visible spectrometer (UVIS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) have provided a comprehensive mapping of ozone density, describing the seasonal and spatial distribution of atmospheric ozone in detail. The observations presented here extend over a full Mars year between April 2018 at the beginning of the TGO science operations during late northern summer on Mars (Ls = 163°) and March 2020. UVIS provided transmittance spectra of the martian atmosphere in the 200 - 650 nm wavelength range, allowing measurements of the vertical distribution of the ozone density using its Hartley absorption band (200 – 300 nm). Our findings indicate the presence of (1) a high-altitude peak of ozone between 40 and 60 km in altitude over the north polar latitudes for over 45 % of the martian year, particularly during mid-northern spring, late northern summer-early southern spring, and late southern summer, and (2) a second, but more prominent, high-altitude ozone peak in the south polar latitudes, lasting for over 60 % of the year including the southern autumn and winter seasons. When they are present, both high-altitude peaks are observed in the sunrise and sunset occultations, indicating that the layers could persist during the day. Model results from the GEM-Mars General Circulation predicts the general behavior of the high-altitude peaks of ozone observed by UVIS and are used in an attempt to further our understanding of the chemical processes controlling the high-altitude ozone on Mars.