Now you can help NASA find ice clouds on Mars
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS https://go.nasa.gov/3nyQbu6)
NASA has launched the “Cloudspotting on Mars” project, in which everyone can look for ice clouds on the Red Planet in images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The volunteers will help planetary scientists create maps of the distribution of mesospheric clouds in the atmosphere of Mars.
Not only Earth has clouds. They exist on other planets too and they are important because they can both heat and cool them.
For example, on Mars, ice clouds can form in the mesosphere (above 50 kilometers) from frozen carbon dioxide.
Ice clouds can form at lower altitudes (from 10 to 30 kilometers) from water ice; and rovers and orbiters have observed them.
In order for the clouds to form, they need to condensate their nuclei, which can be particles of dust, water ice, or residues from the combustion of meteors in the atmosphere.
The differences in the composition and the size of cloud particles lead to differences in their effect on the Martian atmosphere.
Now a team of planetary scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has launched a new science project, Cloudspotting on Mars, based on the Zooniverse portal.
The scientists, led by Marek Slipski, are interested in knowing what causes the Martian atmosphere to cool so much that carbon dioxide freezes out
They also want to understand how Martian clouds change during the day or at different times of the year, and what they are made of.
Anyone can be a volunteer, and their job will be to analyze data obtained by the Mars Climate Sounder instrument (MCS) of the MRO from December 2007 to October 2009.
The instrument observes the Martian atmosphere in the infrared and optical ranges, measuring the temperature and the content of water ice and dust
MCS also sees clouds at high altitudes, which look like arched structures from its point of view. Participants need to find similar structures in the MCS images and label them.
The results of the work should help to compile dynamic maps of mesospheric clouds on Mars.
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