Background Information

There have been numerous reasons stated for explaining our seemingly insatiable desire to travel to the planet Mars including our desire to seek out other life forms in other contexts away from planet Earth.

The first travelers to visit Mars will be faced with an extremely hostile environment. The temperature is typically -60°C; the air is thin making survival without a space suit impossible. Surface winds breed dust storms and tornados.

If we are to survive on Mars, we must understand the conditions that we are likely to encounter.

Can we grow food in Martian greenhouses? Can we forecast dust storms? How cold does it get in the Martian night? Is there enough sunlight to grow basic food crops? Can we extract water vapour from the thin Martian air?

To address these questions Martian weather will need to be studied in great detail. Canadian scientists will be at the forefront of this exciting research. Canada's contribution to Phoenix (a Martian lander) was a meteorological station that recorded the daily weather of the Martian northern plains. The lander used temperature, wind and pressure sensors, as well as a light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument. For more information about the Phoenix Mission visit the Canadian Space Agency web site.

The Phoenix Lander on the Martian surface with its solar panels deployed

Figure 1: The Phoenix Lander on the Martian surface with its solar panels deployed.

Notes

The focus of this activity is on the weather instruments on the Phoenix Lander, a remote-sensing laboratory designed to explore the Martian atmosphere and to dig into the Martian soil.

A major portion of the Phoenix Lander involved several Canadian designed and Canadian built instruments for observing and recording the weather in the Martian atmosphere.

To get a better understanding of these instruments and how they will be used, this project lets students construct some basic instruments to explore the Earth's atmosphere. They will make and record their own observations, and look for patterns in the scientific data that they collect.

Phoenix meteorological mast

Figure 2: Close up of the Phoenix meteorological mast with its three temperature sensors and the LIDAR instrument for determining cloud height as well as providing clues as to the composition of the clouds.

On Mars the Phoenix meteorological instruments collected the following information. The data was relayed to scientists on Earth who analyzed it for patterns that can be used to predict the Martian weather and to help understand the physics of Martian climate and weather.

Data

  1. Temperature: Numerous measurements of the temperature of the Martian atmosphere were taken throughout the Martian day and night.
  2. Wind Speed and Direction: The wind on Mars plays a major role in the transport of heat across the planet. It can raise huge dust storms during the Martian summer.
  3. Barometric Pressure: Pressure is an important component of weather systems because differences in pressure result in air movement – wind.
  4. Cloud height and density: The Lander LIDAR system used laser beams to probe high into the upper atmosphere of Mars.