Mars is warming too?

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Apparently 1 degree F since 1970...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/0...eut/index.html

Study: Red planet heating up

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- Earth's dusty neighbor Mars is grappling with its own form of climate change as fluctuating solar radiation is kicking up dust and winds that may be melting the planet's southern polar ice cap, scientists said Wednesday.

Researchers have been watching the changing face of Mars for years, studying slight differences in the brightness and darkness of its surface.

These changes in brightness have been generally attributed to the presence of dust, but until now their effect on wind circulation and climate has not been clear.

NASA scientist Lori Fenton and colleagues, reporting this week in the journal Nature, now believe variations in radiation from the surface of Mars are fueling strong winds that stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet's temperature.

By studying changes in light reflected from the surface of Mars -- a measure known as an object's albedo -- they predict the red planet has warmed by around 1 degree Fahrenheit from the 1970s to the 1990s, which may in part have caused the recent retreat of the southern polar ice cap.

On Earth, carbon dioxide traps infrared radiation which can affect global climate. This a phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect. Fossil fuel emissions add to the problem. If this Mars heating is true, then this is complete bullsh!t. Already the sun is being cited by more and more sane scientists as the cause of our warming, because there is some.

On Mars, it's the red-tinged dust.

Fenton's team compared thermal maps gathered from NASA's Viking mission in the 1970s with maps gathered more than two decades later by the Global Surveyor.

They saw that large swaths of the surface have darkened or brightened over the past three decades.

These albedo changes strengthened winds, picking up and circulating dust, creating a vicious cycle that is warming the planet.

"Our results suggests that documented albedo changes affect recent climate change and large-scale weather patterns on Mars," Fenton's team wrote.

They believe changes in albedo should be an important part of future studies on atmosphere and climate change.

[Hummer Aficionado_VT]

Yeah, those martians really should stop driving HUMMERs and switch to hybrids! Don't they know what SUVs are doing to their planet?!

[evldave]

Yes, but wasn't it HUMANS who started sending objects to Mars in the 70s? I can easily draw a connection that we actually started martian global warming by introducing warm landing craft to their fragile geosystems.

Or, we are just terraforming the planet in secret and will move there when we finally use up the last of our oil

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Here's some interesting work using tree ring proxies, some of which were used in the famous "Hockey Stick" graph.

http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1310#more-1310

[KenP]

Well hell, I was going to go there on vacation.

[NEOCON1]

Originally Posted by KenP

Well hell, I was going to go there on vacation.

Mars is highly over-rated not much atmosphere

[DRTYFN]

Actually, all of the planets in our solar system are warming. Imagine that. Wonder why Al Gore missed that in his scifi movie?

[frenzy1]

Women are from VEnus, men and hummers are from Mars !!

Googleygayliehummbob is from Ur Anus !