Re: [asa] Martian ice caps

Supporting what has already be said...
   
  A Martian year is a little shy of 2 of our Earth years. This means its summers and winters will be much longer and will contribute to greater increases and decreases for each Martian ice cap -- as one shrinks the other will grow. Its obliquity is currently 25.2 deg. vs. our 23.5 deg. This large obliquity greatly affects the amount of solar influence upon them. On longer time scales, since Mars lacks a heavyweight companion like our Moon, its obliquity will swing from around 15 deg. to 35 deg over a period of about 125,000 years or so. This, of course, will complicate ice cap models. Of course, as mentioned, Mars has a greater eccentricity, too, that that accentuates the wax and wane of the caps.
   
  Another big factor is the lack of a substantial atmosphere for Mars. Its surface is much more susceptible to external factors, especially the Sun. Also, the giant dust storms have major impact on surface temperatures too; the more dust, the more solar reflection, the cooler the planet (usually).
   
  The reference link given by PvM is from August of 2003, and I found one from September of 2005. Here it is September of 2007 and you can bet the southern ice cap of Mars is melting because it is summer time for its southern hemisphere. Look for melting reports come summer of 2009. :)

Carol or John Burgeson <burgytwo@juno.com> wrote: My geologist-clergy friend dismissed human influence on global warming to
us yesterday as problematic and probably not factual on the argument that
as earth's ice caps melt so are those of Mars -- fluctuations in the
sun's output probably responsible.

Is there a rebuttal to this?

Burgy

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Received on Tue Sep 11 16:15:31 2007