NASA/JPL–Caltech/MSSS
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A Martian dust storm seen from orbit by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2007.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Seasonal imbalance in the amount of solar energy absorbed and released by the planet Mars likely to be the cause dust storm that has long intrigued observers, the research team reports.
Mars’ extreme imbalance in its energy budget (a term referring to the measurement of solar energy that the planet takes in from the sun and then releases as heat) was documented by researchers from the University of Houston. Liming Liprofessor of physics; Xun Jiang, professor of atmospheric sciences; and Ellen Creecydoctoral student and lead author of articles published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on May 16, 2022 entitled Mars’ emitted energy and seasonal energy imbalance.
“One of our most exciting findings is that excess energy—more energy absorbed than emitted—could be one of the mechanisms that generate Martian dust storms. Understanding how this works on Mars may provide clues about the role of Earth’s energy budget. The planet is receiving the development of severe storms, including hurricanes, just like on our own planet,” Creecy said, as reported Tech Explorist.
The thin atmosphere and highly elliptical orbit make Mars very susceptible to wide temperature differences. The planet absorbs extreme amounts of solar heat as its orbit approaches the sun in the perihelion season (spring and summer for the southern hemisphere of Mars). During this extreme season of its orbit, a Martian dust storm emerges.
Because its orbit takes Mars farther from the sun, less solar energy is absorbed by the planet. The same phenomenon also occurs on Earth, but the researchers found it to be very extreme on Mars.
Meanwhile on Earth, energy imbalances can be measured according to seasons and years, and they play an important role in global warming as well as changing our climate.
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library Via Getty Images
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A seasonal imbalance between the sun’s energy absorbed and released by Mars could be the cause of the Red Planet’s dust storms, new research suggests.
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In a separate project, Creecy and his colleagues examined whether energy imbalances on Mars also exist on a longer timescale, and if they did, what implications for climate change on the planet. “Mars is not a planet that has any real energy storage mechanisms, like we have on Earth. Our vast oceans, for example, help balance the climate system,” Creecy said.
However, Mars has signs that oceans, lakes, and rivers were once abundant. So what happened? The facts are not clear, why or when the planet dried up into a hot, dusty ball with lots of iron oxide—rust. To the extent that it is brown in color which inspired observers from centuries ago to call it the Red Planet.
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