Posted on 12/07/2001 7:06:38 AM PST by Lee308
Study Suggests Mars Ice Caps Eroding By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Vast fields of carbon dioxide ice are eroding from the poles of Mars, suggesting that the climate of the Red Planet is warming and the atmosphere is becoming slightly more dense.
Experts say that over time such changes could allow water to return to the Martian surface and turn the frigid planet into a ``shirt-sleeve environment.
Michael A. Caplinger, a scientist with Malin Space Science Systems, said that if the rate of carbon dioxide erosion from the Mars poles continues for thousands of years, ``then it could profoundly amend the climate of Mars.
``You would go from having to wear a spacesuit to just wearing a coat and an oxygen atmosphere,'' said Caplinger.
Caplinger is co-author of a study appearing in the journal Science that analyzes photos of Mars taken by an orbiting spacecraft. The photos were taken in 1999 and in 2001, a period of time that represents one Martian year. Mars is farther from the sun than the Earth and it takes the Red Planet about 23 months to complete one year, a single solar orbit.
Observers have long known that in the Martian winter there is a snow of carbon dioxide caused as temperatures plunge and the gas freezes out of Mars' thin atmosphere.
But the new study suggests that a dense cap of frozen carbon dioxide thought to be permanent at each of the Mars poles may not be all that permanent, said Caplinger.
``It is eroding away at a rapid pace and is going to continue to do that,'' said Caplinger. ``This is not a seasonal change.''
wow, we do that too?
Me think Mr. Sun might have soemthing to do with this.
I wonder if anyone has done any work on that angle?
Well looky here, there it is.
In the May/June 1988 issue of Cycles magazine an article entitled: "When the Sun Goes Backward: Solar Motion, Volcanic Activity, and Climate, 1990-2000", by James H. Shirley, "An unusual 'solar event' will take place in the years 1990-1992. The Sun's motion relative to the solar system mass center will be retrograde, a condition that may be accompanied by unusually persistent climatic extremes."
Roberta Soyars, who has lectured extensively in both South Africa and USA on this issue and is writing a book on the subject, states that the motion has taken place and that it actually began in 1989.
"There is reason to believe that the decade of the 1990's will be characterized by unusually persistent climatic extremes. Major explosive volcanic eruptions may occur. The possible consequences for society suggest the need for a greater investment in support of research to uncover the physical mechanisms and improve forecasts.
Shirley showed an illustration showing how the sun looped about the solar system barycenter in a counterclockwise direction. "This is the normal state of affairs," he noted, "at least over the past 13 centuries (Fairbridge and Shirley 1987.) However, very infrequently, something different happens. "Figure 3 shows the path of the center of the Sun in the years 1984-2000. In the current orbit, the Sun fails to loop the barycenter, instead falling short and looping out again. View B is an enlargement (x10) of the path near the barycenter. During this time, the motion is clockwise relative to the center of the solar system, the opposite of the usual case.
"I have presented a simple forecast model based on these mechanisms. The simplest statement that can be made is, if conditions in the 1990's are similar to those of the two previous episodes of solar retrograde motion, then societies will experience climatological extremes of a magnitude and persistence unprecedented thus far in this century. The scenario can be developed in a little more detail. We can expect to encounter:
"Increased frequency and duration of meridional circulation patterns, with associated climatic extremes of drought, flood, and other severe and unusual weather, along with, possibly, "Major explosive volcanic eruptions. Based on analog periods, these should occur principally between 1993-99. Some may be of immediate climatological significance, cooling the northern hemisphere after the manner of Tamora (Stothers, 1984; Kelly at al 1984.
"It has been shown that some eruptions cause climatic cooling, and this might independently account for the climate conditions (Porter 1981; Kelly and Sear 1984).
"The socio-economic and political consequences of a decade-long climatic change to conditions similar to those of the analog periods would be massive, though presumably not unmanageable if the situation were appreciated. We must invest in additional research to gain a better understanding of the systems and their interactions."
In the August 1989 issue of Astronomy magazine carried an article, 'The Day the Sun Cut Loose', by Gerrit Verschuur. "Few people in the world realized it at the time, but during two weeks in March the magnetic field that cocoons our planet suffered an unprecedented assault of wave upon wave of energetic particles from the Sun. The onslaught culminated on March 13, when an enormous solar shock wave lammed into Earth's magnetospere with the force of a megaton bomb."
"The article goes on to describe some of the effects of this huge solar flare. There have been others since - a couple of notable ones this year, in fact. At the week-end of June 1, 1991, intense geomagnetic storms accompanied extremely large solar flares. Eruptions of Mt. Unzen in Japan, and Mt. Pinatubo in the Phillipines, immediately followed. There was, as predicted, a definite cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. Not to mention the tremendous floods of the past few years!
"In recent days volcanic eruptions of the Montserrat and Popocatepetl in Mexico were reported. 'I won't be too much surprised," Soyars noted, 'the eruptions of the volcano on Montserrat, and of Popocatepetl in Mexico, represent "straws in the wind", forerunners a much more such activity. Actually, volcanic eruptions (according to scientists) are an important part of what keeps Spaceship Earth hugging along! Mars has volcanoes, but they are inactive now. What stopped them? They don't know yet. The absence of eruptions, the loss of former oceans and no plate tectonics such as we have on earth, are believed to be at least some of the reasons that life no longer exists there, if indeed it once did.'"
Al Gore and his buddies at the United Nations seem determined to totally ignore the sun's role in climate extremes. Debates at the Earth Summit on the Environment in Rio in 1992 and in June of 1997 at the Earth Summit in New York, placed the blame for uncomfortable weather squarely on the shoulders of those who are determined to use such evil things as air conditioners and hair spray. The Sun got off scott free. Probably because they couldn't figure out a way to legislate against the sun.
However, these prior scientific observations about solar activity, and it's quite accurate predictions on the impact of the weather in the decade from 1990-2000 somehow never made the news. In fact, what DID make the news is the notion that somehow we humans, especially we American humans, who have achieved a higher than average standard of living are somehow responsible for all this unusual weather.
Edited from an article by Roberto Soyers entitled "It's the Sun"
"It's the Sun" was an updated article, I know that Soyars was quoted in it, but not sure who actually penned it.
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