Temperature conditions of Mars. temperature on Mars. Planets of the solar system. Why then did the spring warmth surprise the Spaniards?

atmospheric composition

The atmosphere of Mars is more rarefied than the air shell of the Earth, and 95% consists of carbon dioxide, about 4% is nitrogen and argon. Oxygen and water vapor in the Martian atmosphere is less than 1%. The average atmospheric pressure at the surface is 160 times less than at the Earth's surface.

The mass of the atmosphere during the year varies greatly due to condensation in winter and evaporation in summer, large volumes of carbon dioxide at the poles, in the polar caps.

Cloud cover and precipitation

There is very little water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, but at low pressure and temperature, it is in a state close to saturation, and often collects in clouds. Martian clouds are rather inexpressive compared to those on Earth.

Temperature

The average temperature on Mars is much lower than on Earth - about -40°C. Under the most favorable conditions in the summer in the daytime half of the planet, the air warms up to 20 ° C - a completely acceptable temperature for the inhabitants of the Earth. But on winter nights, frost can reach up to -125°С. At winter temperatures, even carbon dioxide freezes, turning into dry ice. Such sharp temperature drops are caused by the fact that the rarefied atmosphere of Mars is not able to retain heat for a long time. As a result of numerous measurements of temperatures at various points on the surface of Mars, it turns out that during the day at the equator the temperature can reach up to + 27 ° C, but by morning it drops to -50 ° C.

There are also temperature oases on Mars, in the areas of the "lake" Phoenix (Sun Plateau) and the land of Noah, the temperature difference is from -53 ° C to + 22 ° C in summer and from -103 ° C to -43 ° C in winter. Thus, Mars is a very cold world, but the climate there is not much harsher than in Antarctica. When the first photographs of the surface of Mars taken by the Viking were transmitted to Earth, scientists were very surprised to see that the Martian sky was not black, as expected, but pink. It turned out that the dust hanging in the air absorbs 40% of the incoming sunlight, creating a color effect.

Dust storms and tornadoes

Winds are one of the manifestations of temperature difference. Strong winds often blow over the surface of the planet, the speed of which reaches 100 m/s. Low gravity allows even rarefied air currents to raise huge clouds of dust. Sometimes quite vast areas on Mars are covered by grandiose dust storms. Most often they occur near the polar caps. A global dust storm on Mars prevented photographing the surface from the Mariner 9 probe. It raged from September to January 1972, raising about a billion tons of dust into the atmosphere at an altitude of more than 10 km. Dust storms most often occur during periods of great opposition, when summer in the southern hemisphere coincides with the passage of Mars through perihelion.

Dust devils are another example of temperature-related processes on Mars. Such tornadoes are very frequent manifestations on Mars. They raise dust into the atmosphere and arise due to temperature differences. Reason: during the day, the surface of Mars heats up enough (sometimes to positive temperatures), but at a height of up to 2 meters from the surface, the atmosphere remains just as cold. Such a drop causes instability, raising dust into the air - as a result, dust devils are formed.

Seasons

At the moment it is known that of all the planets of the solar system, Mars is the most similar to the Earth. The axis of rotation of Mars is inclined to its orbital plane by approximately 23.9 °, which is comparable to the tilt of the Earth's axis, which is 23.4 °, and the Martian day practically coincides with the Earth's - which is why, like on Earth, the seasons change. Seasonal changes are most pronounced in the polar regions. In winter, the polar caps occupy a significant area. The boundary of the northern polar cap can move away from the pole by a third of the distance to the equator, and the boundary of the southern cap overcomes half this distance. This difference is caused by the fact that in the northern hemisphere winter occurs when Mars passes through the perihelion of its orbit, and in the southern hemisphere when it passes through aphelion. Because of this, winters in the southern hemisphere are colder than in the northern. And the duration of each of the four Martian seasons varies depending on its distance from the Sun. Therefore, in the Martian northern hemisphere, winters are short and relatively "moderate", and summers are long, but cool. In the south, on the contrary, summers are short and relatively warm, and winters are long and cold.

With the onset of spring, the polar cap begins to “shrink”, leaving behind gradually disappearing islands of ice. At the same time, a so-called wave of darkening propagates from the poles to the equator. Modern theories explain it by the fact that spring winds carry large masses of soil along the meridians with different reflective properties.

Apparently, none of the caps disappear completely. Before the start of exploration of Mars with the help of interplanetary probes, it was assumed that its polar regions were covered with frozen water. More accurate modern ground and space measurements have also found frozen carbon dioxide in the composition of Martian ice. In summer, it evaporates and enters the atmosphere. The winds carry it to the opposite polar cap, where it freezes again. This cycle of carbon dioxide and the different sizes of the polar caps explain the variability in the pressure of the Martian atmosphere.

The relief of the Martian surface is complex and has many details. Dried channels and canyons on the surface of Mars gave rise to assumptions about the existence of an advanced civilization on Mars - for more details, see the article Life on Mars.

A typical Martian landscape resembles a terrestrial desert, and the surface of Mars has a reddish tint due to the increased content of iron oxides in the Martian sand.

Links

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what the "Climate of Mars" is in other dictionaries:

Climate - get an active 220 Volt coupon at Academician or buy a favorable climate at a low price at a sale of 220 Volts

City of Marsa Alama Country EgyptEgypt Mu ... Wikipedia

The polar cap of Mars ... Wikipedia

The polar cap of Mars The hydrosphere of Mars is the totality of the water reserves of the planet Mars, represented by water ice in the polar caps of Mars, ice under the surface, and possible reservoirs of liquid water and aqueous salt solutions in the upper layers ... ... Wikipedia

- "The Sands of Mars" The Sands of Mars Edition 1993, "North West" Genre: Novel

Map of Mars by Giovanni Schiaparelli Martian channels A network of long straight lines in the equatorial region of Mars, discovered by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli during the opposition of 1877, and confirmed by subsequent observations ... ... Wikipedia

> > > Temperature on Mars

What is the temperature on Mars: meaning day and night, summer and winter. Find out the average temperature of the atmosphere and surface of Mars, a description of the climate and research.

The red planet is located farther from the Sun than the Earth, so the planet gets less heat. To be more precise, this is an extremely cold place. The only exception is during the summer. But even at this time temperature on mars drops below 0°C. In summer, the Red Planet can warm up to 20°C, and at night the temperature drops to -90°C.

Mars moves in an elliptical path, so the surface temperature is constantly changing, but not by much. According to the axial tilt of 25.19 degrees, it resembles the earth (26.27), which means it has seasons. Let's add here a thin atmospheric layer and understand why the planet fails to save at least minimal heating. The atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. If it were denser, then a greenhouse effect would form and we got a second Venus.

How has the temperature changed on Mars?

What about the past? Mars rovers and probes show areas of erosion that could be caused by liquid water. This hints that earlier Mars was not only warm, but also humid. However, the Red Planet has been dry and frosty for 3 billion years. Some believe that the cooling process started 4 billion years ago. However, the traces of erosion have not disappeared because there is no liquid water or plate tectonics. The wind is present, but not strong enough to transform the surface.

It is important for researchers to monitor warm weather and liquid water because they are essential for the origin and evolution of life. In addition, if we plan further exploration and colonization, then we cannot do without water sources. The mission will take at least a few years. Before the crew arrives, the water ice can be melted and cleaned.

If the temperature of Mars can still be fought, then water is the main obstacle to colonization. It remains only to develop the technology that will safely take us there and back. Now you know how the temperature on Mars is day and night.

The climate on Mars, although unfavorable for life, is still closest to the earth. Presumably in the past Mars climate could have been warmer and wetter, and liquid water was present on the surface and it even rained.

Mars is the most likely target for the first manned expedition to another planet.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 3

✪ Climate of Planet Mars | What is the temperature of Mars

✪ Vladimir Dovbush: Talking about the causes of global climate change

✪ Mysterious Mars

Subtitles

atmospheric composition

The atmosphere of Mars is more rarefied than the air shell of the Earth, and 95.9% consists of carbon dioxide, about 1.9% is nitrogen and 2% argon. The oxygen content is 0.14%. The average atmospheric pressure at the surface is 160 times less than at the Earth's surface.

The mass of the atmosphere during the year varies greatly due to condensation in winter and evaporation in summer, large volumes of carbon dioxide at the poles, in the polar caps.

Cloud cover and precipitation

Studies conducted by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965 showed that there is currently no liquid water on Mars, but data from NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers indicate the presence of water in the past. On July 31, 2008, water in the state of ice was discovered on Mars at the landing site of NASA's Phoenix spacecraft. The device found ice deposits directly in the ground.

There are several facts in support of the claim of the presence of water on the surface of the planet in the past. First, minerals have been found that could only form as a result of prolonged exposure to water. Secondly, very old craters are practically wiped off the face of Mars. The modern atmosphere could not cause such destruction. The study of the rate of formation and erosion of craters made it possible to establish that wind and water destroyed them most of all about 3.5 billion years ago. Many gullies have approximately the same age.

NASA announced on September 28, 2015 that Mars currently has seasonal liquid salt water flows. These formations manifest themselves in the warm season and disappear - in the cold. Planetary scientists came to their conclusions by analyzing high-quality images obtained by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) scientific instrument of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Martian orbiter.

Temperature

The average temperature on Mars is much lower than on Earth - about -40°C. Under the most favorable conditions in the summer in the daytime half of the planet, the atmosphere warms up to 20 ° C - quite an acceptable temperature for the inhabitants of the Earth. But on winter nights, frost can reach -125°C. At winter temperatures, even carbon dioxide freezes, turning into dry ice. Such sharp temperature drops are caused by the fact that the rarefied atmosphere of Mars is not able to retain heat for a long time. As a result of numerous measurements of temperatures at various points on the surface of Mars, it turns out that during the day at the equator the temperature can reach up to + 27 ° C, but by morning it drops to -50 ° C.

There are temperature oases on Mars, in the areas of the "lake" Phoenix (Sun Plateau) and the land of Noah, the temperature difference is from -53 ° C to + 22 ° C in summer and from -103 ° C to -43 ° C in winter. Thus, Mars is a very cold world, but the climate there is not much harsher than in Antarctica.

Climate of Mars, 4.5ºS, 137.4ºE (from 2012 to today)
Indicator	Jan.	Feb.	March	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sen.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Year
Absolute maximum, °C	6	6	1	0	7	23	30	19	7	7	8	8	30
Average maximum, °C	−7	−18	−23	−20	−4	0	2	1	1	4	−1	−3	−5,7
Average minimum, °C	−82	−86	−88	−87	−85	−78	−76	−69	−68	−73	−73	−77	−78,5
Absolute minimum, °C	−95	−127	−114	−97	−98	−125	−84	−80	−78	−79	−83	−110	−127

“We have bad weather on Mars!” - so it was said in one poem about astronauts, composed in those days when it was still surrounded by a halo of romance ... But really, what is the weather like on the "red planet"?

Speaking of the weather on Earth, we primarily mean the state of the atmosphere. On Mars, it is also there - but not the same as ours. The fact is that Mars, unlike the Earth, does not have a magnetic field that would hold the atmosphere - and the solar wind (a stream of ionized particles from the solar corona) destroys it. Therefore, the atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 160 times lower than the earth's. This cannot protect the planet from daily temperature fluctuations (since it does not prevent the radiation of thermal energy into space), therefore, at the equator, the air temperature, rising to +30 ° C during the day, drops to -80 ° C at night, and even lower at the poles - up to -143°C.

But what our planets are very similar to is the angle of inclination of the axis of rotation, “responsible” for the change of seasons on the planet (for the Earth it is 23.439281, and for Mars it is 25.19, as you can see - not such a big difference ), so there is also a change of seasons on Mars - they only last twice as long (after all, the Martian year is almost 2 times longer than the earth's - 687 Earth days). There are also climatic zones, the seasons differ from hemisphere to hemisphere.

So, in the northern hemisphere, winter comes when Mars is closest to the Sun, and in the southern hemisphere, when it moves away, in summer everything happens the other way around. Therefore, winters in the northern hemisphere are shorter and warmer than in the southern, and summers are longer, but colder.

But most noticeable (at least to an observer from the ground) is the change of seasons in the polar regions covered with ice caps. They never completely disappear, but their size changes. In winter, the distance from the south pole to the border of the south polar cap is half the distance to the equator, and at the north pole - a third of this distance. With the advent of spring, the polar caps decrease, “retreating” towards the poles. At the same time, “dry ice” (frozen carbon dioxide), which makes up the upper layer of ice caps, evaporates, and in the gaseous state is carried by the wind to the opposite pole, where winter sets in at that time - and (therefore, the cap grows at the opposite pole).

On Earth, being interested in the weather forecast, we first of all ask ourselves the question: will it rain? So, on Mars you can not be afraid of rain - at such a low atmospheric pressure, water in a liquid state cannot exist. But snow does happen. So, the snow fell on Mars in 1979 in the landing area of the Viking-2 spacecraft, and did not melt for quite a long time - several months.

In lowlands, at the bottom of craters and canyons, there is often fog during the cold hours of the day, and the water vapor present in the atmosphere forms clouds.

But what we should be wary of on Mars (if we ever go there) is hurricane winds, tornadoes and dust storms. Wind speeds of up to 100 m/s are common on Mars, and due to the low gravity, the winds raise a huge amount of dust into the air.

The largest dust storms originate in the southern hemisphere of Mars in the spring (when the planet warms up quickly) - and can drag on for a long time and cover vast territories. So, from September 1971 to January 1972, a dust storm raged on Mars, engulfing the entire planet - about a billion tons of dust was raised to a 10-kilometer height. This storm almost disrupted the mission of the Mariner 9 spacecraft - due to the dense dust veil, the surface of the planet was impossible to observe. The Mariner's computer had to delay photography (and still no one could vouch for success - it was impossible to predict when the storm would stop).

There are also "dust devils" on Mars - whirlwinds that raise dust and sand into the air. On Earth, such a phenomenon occurs in deserts, but Mars is the entire desert, and such a dusty whirlwind can occur anywhere.

As you can see, the climate of Mars is really not very favorable. And in order for “apple trees to bloom” there, one will either have to change the planet very much, or wait until nature does it ... In any case, mass settlement of Mars is unlikely to take place in the foreseeable future.

Now Mars has a dry and cold climate (left), but in the early stages of the planet's evolution, it most likely had liquid water and a dense atmosphere (right).

Study of

Observation history

Current Observations

Weather

Temperature

The average temperature on Mars is much lower than on Earth: −63°C. Since the atmosphere of Mars is very rarefied, it does not smooth out daily fluctuations in surface temperature. Under the most favorable conditions in the summer in the daytime half of the planet, the air warms up to 20 ° C (and at the equator - up to +27 ° C) - a completely acceptable temperature for the inhabitants of the Earth. The maximum air temperature recorded by the Spirit rover was +35 ° C. But winter at night, frost can reach even at the equator from -80 ° C to -125 ° C, and at the poles, night temperatures can drop to -143 ° C. However, diurnal temperature fluctuations are not as significant as on the atmosphereless Moon and Mercury. On Mars, there are temperature oases, in the areas of the "lake" Phoenix (plateau of the Sun) and Noah's land temperature difference is from -53°С to +22°С in summer and from -103°С to -43°С in winter. Thus, Mars is a very cold world, the climate there is much more severe than in Antarctica.

*Climate of Mars, 4.5ºS, 137.4ºE (from 2012 - to today [ when?])*
Indicator	Jan.	Feb.	March	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sen.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Year
Absolute maximum, °C	6	6	1	0	7	23	30	19	7	7	8	8	30
Average maximum, °C	−7	−18	−23	−20	−4	0	2	1	1	4	−1	−3	−5,7
Average minimum, °C	−82	−86	−88	−87	−85	−78	−76	−69	−68	−73	−73	−77	−78,5
Absolute minimum, °C	−95	−127	−114	−97	−98	−125	−84	−80	−78	−79	−83	−110	−127
Source: Centro de Astrobiología, Mars Science Laboratory Weather Twitter

Atmosphere pressure

The atmosphere of Mars is more rarefied than the Earth's air shell, and consists of more than 95% carbon dioxide, while the content of oxygen and water is a fraction of a percent. The average pressure of the atmosphere at the surface is on average 0.6 kPa or 6 mbar, which is 160 less than the earth's or equal to the earth's at an altitude of almost 35 km from the Earth's surface). Atmospheric pressure undergoes strong daily and seasonal changes.

Cloud cover and precipitation

Water vapor in the Martian atmosphere is no more than a thousandth of a percent, however, according to the results of recent (2013) studies, this is still more than previously thought, and more than in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere, and at low pressure and temperature, it is in a state close to saturation, so it often gathers in clouds. As a rule, water clouds form at altitudes of 10-30 km above the surface. They are concentrated mainly on the equator and are observed almost throughout the year. Clouds observed at high levels of the atmosphere (more than 20 km) are formed as a result of CO 2 condensation. The same process is responsible for the formation of low (at an altitude of less than 10 km) clouds in the polar regions in winter, when the atmospheric temperature drops below the freezing point of CO 2 (-126 °С); in summer, similar thin formations are formed from ice H 2 O

Formations of a condensation nature are also represented by fogs (or haze). They often stand above lowlands - canyons, valleys - and at the bottom of craters during the cold time of the day.

Blizzards can occur in the Martian atmosphere. In 2008, the Phoenix rover observed virgu in the polar regions - precipitation under the clouds, evaporating before reaching the surface of the planet. According to initial estimates, the rate of precipitation in the virga was very low. However, recent (2017) modeling of Martian atmospheric phenomena showed that at mid-latitudes, where there is a regular change of day and night, after sunset, the clouds cool sharply, and this can lead to snowstorms, during which particle speeds can actually reach 10 m /with. Scientists assume that strong winds combined with low cloudiness (usually Martian clouds form at an altitude of 10-20 km) can cause snow to fall on the surface of Mars. This phenomenon is similar to terrestrial microbursts - squalls of downwind wind at speeds up to 35 m/s, often associated with thunderstorms.

Snow has indeed been observed more than once. So, in the winter of 1979, a thin layer of snow fell in the Viking-2 landing area, which lay for several months.

Dust storms and tornadoes

A characteristic feature of the atmosphere of Mars is the constant presence of dust, the particles of which have a size of the order of 1.5 mm and consist mainly of iron oxide. Low gravity allows even rarefied air flows to raise huge clouds of dust to a height of up to 50 km. And the winds, which are one of the manifestations of the temperature difference, often blow over the surface of the planet (especially in late spring - early summer in the southern hemisphere, when the temperature difference between the hemispheres is especially sharp), and their speed reaches 100 m/s. In this way, extensive dust storms are formed, which have long been observed in the form of individual yellow clouds, and sometimes in the form of a continuous yellow veil covering the entire planet. Most often, dust storms occur near the polar caps, their duration can reach 50-100 days. Weak yellow haze in the atmosphere, as a rule, is observed after large dust storms and is easily detected by photometric and polarimetric methods.

Dust storms, which were well observed on images taken from orbiters, turned out to be barely visible when photographed from landers. The passage of dust storms at the landing sites of these space stations was recorded only by a sharp change in temperature, pressure, and a very slight darkening of the general sky background. The layer of dust that settled after the storm in the vicinity of the Viking landing sites amounted to only a few micrometers. All this indicates a rather low bearing capacity of the Martian atmosphere.

From September 1971 to January 1972, a global dust storm took place on Mars, which even prevented photographing the surface from the Mariner 9 probe. The mass of dust in the atmospheric column (with an optical thickness of 0.1 to 10) estimated during this period ranged from 7.8⋅10 -5 to 1.66⋅10 -3 g/cm 2 . Thus, the total weight of dust particles in the Martian atmosphere during the period of global dust storms can reach up to 10 8 - 10 9 tons, which is commensurate with the total amount of dust in the Earth's atmosphere.

The question of water availability

For the stable existence of pure water in the liquid state, the temperature and the partial pressure of water vapor in the atmosphere should be above the triple point on the phase diagram, while now they are far from the corresponding values. Indeed, studies conducted by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965 showed that there is currently no liquid water on Mars, but data from NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers indicate the presence of water in the past. On July 31, 2008, water in the state of ice was discovered on Mars at the landing site of NASA's Phoenix spacecraft. The device found ice deposits directly in the ground. There are several facts in support of the claim of the presence of water on the surface of the planet in the past. First, minerals have been found that could only form as a result of prolonged exposure to water. Secondly, very old craters are practically wiped off the face of Mars. The modern atmosphere could not cause such destruction. The study of the rate of formation and erosion of craters made it possible to establish that wind and water destroyed them most of all about 3.5 billion years ago. Many gullies have approximately the same age.

NASA announced on September 28, 2015 that Mars currently has seasonal liquid salt water flows. These formations manifest themselves in the warm season and disappear - in the cold. Planetologists came to their conclusions by analyzing high-quality images obtained by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) scientific instrument of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Martian orbiter.

On July 25, 2018, a discovery report was released based on research by the MARSIS radar. The work showed the presence of a subglacial lake on Mars, located at a depth of 1.5 km under the ice of the South polar cap (at Planum Australe), about 20 km wide. This became the first known permanent body of water on Mars.

Seasons

Like on Earth, on Mars there is a change of seasons due to the inclination of the axis of rotation to the plane of the orbit, so in winter the polar cap grows in the northern hemisphere, and almost disappears in the southern, and after six months the hemispheres change places. At the same time, due to the rather large eccentricity of the planet's orbit at perihelion (winter solstice in the northern hemisphere), it receives up to 40% more solar radiation than in aphelion, and in the northern hemisphere, winter is short and relatively moderate, and summer is long, but cool, in in the south, on the contrary, summers are short and relatively warm, and winters are long and cold. In this regard, the southern cap in winter grows up to half the pole-equator distance, and the northern cap only up to a third. When summer comes at one of the poles, carbon dioxide from the corresponding polar cap evaporates and enters the atmosphere; the winds carry it to the opposite cap, where it freezes again. In this way, the carbon dioxide cycle occurs, which, along with the different sizes of the polar caps, causes a change in the pressure of the Martian atmosphere as it orbits the Sun. Due to the fact that in winter up to 20-30% of the entire atmosphere freezes in the polar cap, the pressure in the corresponding area drops accordingly.

Changes over time

As on Earth, the climate of Mars underwent long-term changes and in the early stages of the planet's evolution was very different from the current one. The difference is that the main role in the cyclic changes in the Earth's climate is played by a change in the eccentricity of the orbit and the precession of the rotation axis, while the tilt of the rotation axis remains approximately constant due to the stabilizing effect of the Moon, while Mars, without such a large satellite, can undergo significant changes in inclination. its axis of rotation. Calculations have shown that the inclination of the axis of rotation of Mars, which is now 25 ° - about the same value as that of the Earth - was 45 ° in the recent past, and on a scale of millions of years could vary from 10 ° to 50 °.