Mars Atmosphere Provides New Surprise
Mars Water-Ice Clouds Are Key to Odd Thermal Rhythm, NASA JPL
“Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found that temperatures in the Martian atmosphere regularly rise and fall not just once each day, but twice.
“We were surprised to find this strong twice-a-day structure in the temperatures of the non-dusty Mars atmosphere,” Kleinboehl said. “While the diurnal tide as a dominant temperature response to the day-night cycle of solar heating on Mars has been known for decades, the discovery of a persistent semi-diurnal response even outside of major dust storms was quite unexpected, and caused us to wonder what drove this response.””