Philip P. Ide

Author, programmer, science enthusiast, half-wit.
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blog:articles:general:martian_weird_spring [2019/07/22 13:48] – created Phil Ideblog:articles:general:martian_weird_spring [2019/07/23 05:13] – [Martian Spring Weirdness] Phil Ide
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 {{ :blog:articles:general:globe24.png?direct&200|Mars (northern hemisphere)}}Spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars is odd to say the least. The further the season moves away from winter, the warmer we should expect things to get, but this is not the case. It gets colder. By examining why, we can see why Earth is pretty much a special case, and begin to be able to predict weather patterns on other planets. {{ :blog:articles:general:globe24.png?direct&200|Mars (northern hemisphere)}}Spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars is odd to say the least. The further the season moves away from winter, the warmer we should expect things to get, but this is not the case. It gets colder. By examining why, we can see why Earth is pretty much a special case, and begin to be able to predict weather patterns on other planets.
  
-To do this, we're going to have to examine the data, come up with a hypothesis, test it and then draw conclusions. Yup, we're going to be doing some science. Don't panic though, this is low-level stuff and pretty easy.+To explain this, we need to understand everything that is contributing to the issue, so we can then draw some conclusions that fit the data.
 ===== Identifying the Problem ===== ===== Identifying the Problem =====
 First off, let's take a snapshot of the data received from the InSight lander on Mars, and present it in an easily digestible form. First off, let's take a snapshot of the data received from the InSight lander on Mars, and present it in an easily digestible form.
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 Let's take a look at the inner planets as they were on 22<sup>nd</sup> July 2019 (just a few days after the last plot point on the graph). Let's take a look at the inner planets as they were on 22<sup>nd</sup> July 2019 (just a few days after the last plot point on the graph).
 {{ :blog:articles:general:orbits24.png?direct |Inner planets, 22nd July 2019}} {{ :blog:articles:general:orbits24.png?direct |Inner planets, 22nd July 2019}}
 +
 +Mars is in red, Earth is blue, Venus is yellow and Mercury is white.
  
 The equinoxes and solstices for each planet are marked as ve, ss, ae and ws. VE stands for Vernal Equinox and this is also known as the Spring Equinox. At the equator, the vernal equinox occurs when the sun is directly overhead and when this occurs after winter. During spring, the position of the sun in the sky migrates north, until the moment of the summer solstice, when the sun is at its lowest angle vis the horizon and most northerly position. After that, it begins climbing back until it is once again above the equator - this is the autumn equinox. Thereafter, it descends towards the horizon again, this time south of the equator, until it reaches the winter solstice. After that, it climbs again until it is once more above the equator and we reached the next vernal equinox. The equinoxes and solstices for each planet are marked as ve, ss, ae and ws. VE stands for Vernal Equinox and this is also known as the Spring Equinox. At the equator, the vernal equinox occurs when the sun is directly overhead and when this occurs after winter. During spring, the position of the sun in the sky migrates north, until the moment of the summer solstice, when the sun is at its lowest angle vis the horizon and most northerly position. After that, it begins climbing back until it is once again above the equator - this is the autumn equinox. Thereafter, it descends towards the horizon again, this time south of the equator, until it reaches the winter solstice. After that, it climbs again until it is once more above the equator and we reached the next vernal equinox.
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 Hellas Planitia, an incredibly large and deep impact basin in the southern hemisphere, is so deep that air pressure in its lowest areas is sufficient to sustain liquid water. At the moment, nearly all our experiments we've sent to the Martian surface, have landed in the northern hemisphere. The Curiosity rover is an exception to this, but it is wandering around inside Gale Crater, just south of the equator and only a few hundred kilometres from InSight. It will be very interesting to get on-sight weather data from deeper in the southern hemisphere, which we'll surely do as our ability to land on much more [[:blog:articles:science:landing_mars2020|challenging terrain]] improves. Hellas Planitia, an incredibly large and deep impact basin in the southern hemisphere, is so deep that air pressure in its lowest areas is sufficient to sustain liquid water. At the moment, nearly all our experiments we've sent to the Martian surface, have landed in the northern hemisphere. The Curiosity rover is an exception to this, but it is wandering around inside Gale Crater, just south of the equator and only a few hundred kilometres from InSight. It will be very interesting to get on-sight weather data from deeper in the southern hemisphere, which we'll surely do as our ability to land on much more [[:blog:articles:science:landing_mars2020|challenging terrain]] improves.
 +
 +//images courtesy of [[https://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/|Mars24]], a freeware program downloadable from NASA.\\
 +Graph generated by the author, based on data available from NASA's [[https://mars.nasa.gov/insight|InSight lander]]//
 +
 +~~socialite~~
 +~~DISCUSSION~~
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