Martian South Pole Warmer than predicted
A Martian weather satellite has surprised scientists with its first report from the Red Planet.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found that winter conditions above the planet's south pole are much warmer than had been expected.
The probe launched by the American space agency Nasa went into orbit around Mars two years ago.
Results from its observations are published for the first time today in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists used an instrument on the orbiter to examine the Martian atmosphere in unprecedented detail.
They hope to find clues which may explain how a planet that once had rivers and lakes like Earth turned out to be a waterless desert.
The team discovered that even in the depths of the Martian winter the atmosphere 30 to 80 kilometres (19 to 50 miles) above the south pole was being heated to minus 93C - about 20C warmer than had been predicted.
Professor Fred Taylor, from Oxford University, one of the scientists involved, said: "Winter at the Martian south pole is severe even by the standards of our Antarctic. The pole is shrouded in total darkness for many months and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere freezes, creating blizzards and causing a thick layer of carbon dioxide ice to form across the surface.
"Yet what we've found is that 30 kilometres above the surface conditions are very different."
The scientists believe vigorous circulation of the atmosphere is compressing it and causing the heating effect.
"It's the same effect that warms the cylinder of a bicycle pump, or the pistons of a car engine, when you compress the gas inside," said Prof Taylor.
"What we think we are observing is that the 'engine' of the Martian climate - the atmospheric circulation - is running as much as 50% faster than our models predicted, resulting in this warming of the south pole."
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