Solar Energy News  
NASA Study Reveals Less Water In Clouds Of Mars

A rare photo of high altitude clouds above Mars. NASA image.
by Staff Writers
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 07, 2007
Martian clouds may contain less water than previously thought, according to a new NASA study. New NASA laboratory measurements of simulated martian clouds reveal that scientists may have been overestimating the amount of water in the planet's atmosphere.

"The martian clouds we are studying are composed of water ice, like some clouds on Earth. However, they are forming at very cold temperatures, often below minus 100 degrees Celsius (minus 212 degrees Fahrenheit)," said Tony Colaprete, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "What we have found in our laboratory studies is that it is much harder to initiate cloud formation at these cloud temperatures than what we thought," he explained.

"This difficulty results in larger cloud particles, which fall out of the atmosphere more quickly and, thus, result in less cloud mass and a drier atmosphere," Colaprete explained.

Colaprete will present his findings on at 1:40 p.m. PST Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, during the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center South in Exhibit Hall B.

Previously, scientists believed that martian clouds would form at 100 percent relative humidity, but the new study shows that martian air has to be more supersaturated with water to form clouds than scientists theorized before.

"We want to understand the climate of Mars and how the martian water cycle operates," Colaprete said. "Clouds are integral to this system, just as on Earth. However, assuming the clouds form or behave the same as on Earth, may be a bad assumption."

According to Colaprete, more accurate understanding of the processes that control martian clouds and water cycle are critical to understanding Mars' current and past climates.

A large water ice cap at the martian north pole dominates the martian water cycle. During the northern summer, this water ice cap evaporates, and winds carry the resulting water vapor to the south pole, according to Colaprete.

"The amount of water in the martian atmosphere varies greatly in space and time," Colaprete observed. Clouds in the atmosphere largely control the amount of water that comes off of the north pole and migrates to the south pole.

"Water that reaches the southern winter pole freezes to the surface," Colaprete said. "In the southern spring, this water re-evaporates and returns to the northern polar cap. The cycle is repeated year after year."

If all the water in the atmosphere were to freeze out to the surface, it would make a layer of ice about one-fifth the thickness of a human hair, according to Colaprete.

"Cloud mass is typically only 10 to 20 percent of the total water content. However, the thin martian atmosphere is much more sensitive/reactive to the influence of these clouds," he said.

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Mars Ice Shaken Not Stirred
Boulder, CO (SPX) Oct 28, 2007
Mars, like Earth, is a climate-fickle water planet. The main difference, of course, is that water on the frigid Red Planet is rarely liquid, preferring to spend almost all of its time traveling the world as a gas or churning up the surface as ice. That's the global picture literally and figuratively coming into much sharper focus as various Mars-orbiting cameras send back tomes of unprecedented super high-resolution imagery of ever vaster tracts of the planet's surface.







  • IAEA chief to visit uranium enriching plant in Brazil
  • Investors covet Canadian nuclear energy market
  • IAEA inspects Russian fuel for Iran: factory
  • French, Italian energy groups reach deal on nuclear cooperation

  • Scientists Issue Bali Climate Change Warning
  • Hellish Hot Springs Yield Greenhouse Gas-Eating Bug
  • Germany passes 'ambitious' climate change package
  • Europe urges steeper greenhouse gas cuts

  • Reduce Fish Catch Now For Bigger Net Profits Later
  • Did Early Southwestern Indians Ferment Corn And Make Beer
  • Adapting Agriculture To Climate Change
  • World farm output to drop due to global warming: experts

  • New, Rare And Threatened Species Discovered In Ghana
  • Climate Change Will Significantly Increase Impending Bird Extinctions
  • New Hypothesis For Origin Of Life Proposed
  • Cosmopolitan Microbes -- Hitchhikers On Darwin's Dust

  • Aerojet Develops Innovative Reaction Control Engine Technology
  • ESA Conducts Vega Main Engine Test In Kourou
  • New Thermal Protection Technologies For Reusable Launch Vehicles To Be Validated
  • Defense Focus: Engineer truths -- Part 1

  • Nuclear Power In Space - Part 2
  • Outside View: Nuclear future in space
  • Nuclear Power In Space

  • Outside View: Russia's new sats -- Part 2
  • Use Space Technology And IT For Rural Development
  • China, Brazil give Africa free satellite land images
  • Ministerial Summit On Global Earth Observation System Of Systems

  • Major Physics Breakthrough In Understanding Supersolidity
  • MIT Creates New Oil-Repelling Material
  • Five Years In Orbit For First DMC Satellite AlSAT-1
  • 40th Anniversary Of Australia's First Satellite

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement