Whoa! Frost on the Mars rover solar panels?

[exoscientist]

From the Mars rover press release: <br /><br />December 13, 2004 <br />Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds <br />"A portion of Mars' water vapor is moving from the north pole toward the south pole during the current northern-summer and southern-winter period. The transient increase in atmospheric water at Meridiani, just south of the equator, plus low temperatures near the surface, contribute to appearance of the clouds and frost, Wolff said. Frost shows up some mornings on the rover itself. The possibility that it has a clumping effect on the accumulated dust on solar panels is under consideration as a factor in unexpected boosts of electric output from the panels." <br />http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20041213a.html <br /><br />Rover scientists had speculated that some of this frost may melt to liquid to contribute to the clumping. Note that actual SURFACE temperatures can exceed 0 C when the air temperature is below freezing, when the surface is exposed to direct sunlight (it's southern winter at the landing sites now.) This would be especially true of a dark surface like the solar panels specifically designed to absorb sunlight. <br />What is the expected temperatures of the solar panels during the hottest portion of the day? Do the cameras actually observe the frost on solar panels? If so then we may actually be able to observe the transition to liquid during late morning to early afternoon. <br />Note that the accumulation of this frost confirms visually what has been found by the Mars Odyssey HEND hydrogen mapper that water accumulates on Mars in near equatorial locations during northern and southern Summer: <br /><br />Further evidence for current liquid water near the equator on Mars. <br />Posted by Robert Clark on 11/25/2004 12:39:16 AM <br />http://habitablezo <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

I found this link that gives the current Mars temperatures. But it doesn't give a legend to interpret the color coded maps?<br /> Anyone know what is the high temperature in the maps?<br /><br />http://tes.asu.edu/dust/<br /><br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[yurkin]

Lets hope not.<br />I don't think there is an ice scrapper on board.<br />

 

[exoscientist]

Imaging at the Opportunity rover landing site in Meridiani Planum confirms observations using the HEND instrument on Mars Observer that water/ice is deposited near the equator seasonally on Mars: <br /><br />Space Sciences <br />Whoa! Frost on the solar panels? <br />Posted by Robert Clark on 12/14/2004 7:32:38 AM <br />In Reply to: Sabkha or playa, take your pick... posted by Nick Hoffman on 12/13/2004 6:23:08 PM <br />http://habitablezone.com/space/messages/360805.html <br /><br />However, the HEND instrument shows the greatest amount is deposited during southern Summer: <br /><br />47 - EVIDENCE OF THE SEASONAL REDISTRIBUTION OF WATER IN THE SURFICIAL MARTIAN REGOLITH BASED ON ANALYSIS OF THE HEND MAPPING DATA. <br />R.O. Kuzmin, E.V. Zabalueva, I.G. Mitrofanov, M.L.Litvak, A.V. Parshukov, <br />V.Yu.Grin'kov, W. Boynton, R.S. Saunders. <br />"As it well seen from fig.1b,c,d, two distinctive “hollows” of neutrons flux reduction have been appeared in the northern hemisphere during northern summer at Ls=130°-170° and in first half of northern winter at Ls=270°-330°, being extended from high to low latitudes. At that, later “hollow” (Ls=270°-330°) is characterized by much stronger reduction of the neutrons flux and it traces from northern polar region up to low latitudes in the southern hemisphere. The first “hollow” is related with periods of the northern middle summer, while the second one – with of the southern middle summer. In both case the residual polar caps serve as main source of the water in the Martian atmosphere." <br />p. 2 <br />http://www.geokhi.ru/~planetology/theses/47_kuzmin_et_al.pdf <br /><br />Opportunity landed just barely after this time in southern Summer at about LS 340° (LS stands for solar longitude and indicates Mars position in its orbit.) <br />However, it is notable that Spirit did land <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[newtonian]

Exoscientist - I think rain on Mars is less likely than snow in Brownsville, Texas......<br /><br />Then again, with global warming.......<br /><br />Seriously, have they tried to collect water samples to confirm water condensation (frost or dew)?

 

[exoscientist]

Note also that evaporates (sulfate or carbonate) seen on *top* of rocks in Gusev also supports the idea of atmospheric deposition of liquid water in Gusev: <br /><br />======================================== <br />Newsgroups: sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary,sci.geo.geology,sci.geo.mineralogy <br />From: rgregorycl...@yahoo.com (Robert Clark) Date: 2 Jul 2004 04:57:20 -0700 <br />Local: Fri, Jul 2 2004 4:57 am <br />Subject: Evidence for atmospheric liquid water in Gusev? <br /><br /><br />In the badastronomy.com forum Daniel Crotty presents an image (below) <br />showing white colored material on *top* of rocks. This would argue <br />against the interpretation suggested by Steve Squyres that the <br />sulfates seen in Gusev might stem from water percolating up from the <br />subsurface. Instead it would suggest sulfates formed from liquid water <br />precipitation(rain) or liquid water droplets in a humid atmosphere. <br />I wondered whether white material on the rocks could be due to the <br />dust kicked up by a RATTing but Crotty gives other images with no <br />ratting nearby that also shows white rocks: <br /><br /><br />Dusty, bright material around Spirit, Sol 165 <br />http://badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14573&sid=7f6b82d247999... <br /><br /><br /><br />Uncalibrated color image by Daniel Crotty. <br />http://www.lyle.org/~markoff/collections/spiritsol165_L257.jpg <br /><br /><br />Bob Clark <br />========================================= <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

BTW, I got the times for the various LS (solar longitude) periods from a file showing the arrivals of the Mars missions according to LS. <br /><br /><br />http://sciforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3652<br /> <br /><br /> Bob Clark<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>