EAS206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Patterned Ground, Water Cycle, Ultraviolet
18 Jul 2020
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Document Summary
Mars travels 360 around the sun in one mars year. Describe the current climate of mars in terms of the surface and air temperature, and the stability of water and carbon dioxide. Patterned ground: distinctive geometric patterns caused by freeze- thaw processes. Found in high latitudes (towards the poles) of earth and mars. Describe mars" hydrologic cycle over the scale of days, years and longer. During this brief period, water vapor can rise from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere, from where it is carried by winds to the planet"s. At the pole, some of this water is split by the sun"s ultraviolet radiation into hydrogen and hydroxyl radicals, and the hydrogen escapes into space. The rest of the water sinks back down into the lower atmosphere near the poles. The polar caps are significant reservoirs of frozen water and carbon dioxide. Always present, some annual and multi year variations.
