And now, the weather forecast for Mars

Posted Thu, 11/05/2009 - 18:02 by Wired

The weather forecast is the least exciting segment of a daily news programme. Should you stay in the room, transfixed by laziness, the presenter will gesture blandly towards the various parts of the country, spouting monotone predictions for rainy here and drizzle there. To snazz it up a bit we might be treated to a virtual camera zooming around a 3D model of Earth, letting us know what the forecast is for, say, Rio de Janeiro. But what if, after Rio, the virtual camera hyper-jumped across space to show us the weather on Mars? Istvan Szunyogh and Mark Lemmon, both professors of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M, are working on it. NASA recently tasked them with analysing and forecasting Martian weather, information which could dramatically improve the success of future missions to our red neighbour. It's easy to understand why: negotiating a landing on the Martian surface is a lot easier in relatively calm conditions, rather than during one of the 250-300 mph dust storms that can engulf up to half the planet .

See original: And now, the weather forecast for Mars

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