The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars

Robert M. Haberle, R. Todd Clancy, François Forget, Michael D. Smith, Richard W. Zurek

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781107016187
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108180269
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Humanity has long been fascinated by the planet Mars. Was its climate ever conducive to life? What is the atmosphere like today and why did it change so dramatically over time? Eleven spacecraft have successfully flown to Mars since the Viking mission of the 1970s and early 1980s. These orbiters, landers and rovers have generated vast amounts of data that now span a Martian decade (roughly eighteen years). This new volume brings together the many new ideas about the atmosphere and climate system that have emerged, including the complex interplay of the volatile and dust cycles, the atmosphere-surface interactions that connect them over time, and the diversity of the planet's environment and its complex history. Including tutorials and explanations of complicated ideas, students, researchers and non-specialists alike are able to use this resource to gain a thorough and up-to-date understanding of this most Earth-like of planetary neighbours.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• General Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Understanding Mars and Its Atmosphere
• 3 History of Mars Atmosphere Observations
• 4 Thermal Structure and Composition
• 5 Mars Clouds
• 6 Radiative Process: Techniques and Applications
• 7 The Martian Planetary Boundary Layer
• 8 Mesoscale Meteorology
• 9 The Global Circulation
• 10 The Mars Dust Cycle
• 11 The Water Cycle
• 12 The CO2 Cycle
• 13 Atmospheric Photochemistry
• 14 Upper Neutral Atmosphere and Ionosphere
• 15 Solar Wind Interaction and Atmospheric Escape
• 16 Recent Climate Variations
• 17 The Early Mars Climate System
• 18 Future Prospects
• Index
• Plates