Cold Spots in the Martian Polar Regions: Evidence of Carbon Dioxide Depletion?
✍ Scribed by Benjamin P. Weiss; Andrew P. Ingersoll
- Book ID
- 102567887
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 45 KB
- Volume
- 144
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0019-1035
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✦ Synopsis
Regions of very low, rapidly varying brightness temperatures have been observed near the martian winter poles by several spacecraft. One possibility is that the CO 2 condensation temperature is lowered by depletion of CO 2 in the air at the surface. We estimate the rate at which this low-molecular-weight air would disperse into the high-molecular-weight air above and show that it is generally faster than the rate of supply. This dispersal could be prevented if there is a strong temperature inversion (warm air above colder air) near the surface. Without an inversion, the entire atmospheric column could become depleted. However, depleted columns take a long time to form, and they are inconsistent with the rapid fluctuations in the cold spot locations and temperatures. Because low-altitude temperature inversions cannot be ruled out by existing observations, CO 2 depletion is still a viable explanation for the martian cold spots.