Mars Macroweather Reveals We May Only Predict Martian Weather Two Days in Advance

Weather changes from day-to-day, but there's also something called macroweather, which is the relatively stable regime between weather and climate. Now, scientists have discovered that this type of weather also exists on Mars, which reveals further insights into the Martian climate.

The researchers decided to study Mars because a wealth of data has been collected on the planet. They hoped that they could test their theory that a transitional "macroweather" regime exists on other planets. More specifically, the scientists examined data collected from Viking, a Mars lander mission, and more recent data from a satellite orbiting Mars.

The scientists took into account how the sun heats Mars, as well as the thickness of the planet's atmosphere. In the end, they predicted that Martian temperature and wind would fluctuate similarly to Earth's, but that the transition from weather to macroweather would take place over 1.8 Martian days, which is about two Earth days, compared with a week to 10 days on Earth.

"Our analysis of the data from Mars confirmed this prediction quite accurately," said Shaun Lovejoy, lead author of the new paper, in a news release. "This adds to evidence, from studies of Earth's atmosphere and oceans, that the sun plays a central role in shaping the transition from short-term weather fluctuations to macroweather."

The findings should help advance scientists' understanding of the dynamics of Earth's own atmosphere. Not only that, but it could provide insights into the weather of Venus, Saturn's moon, Neptune, and even the gas giants in our solar system. Not only that, but they show that weather on Mars can only be predicted with some skill up to two days in advance.

"We're going to have a very hard time predicting the weather on Mars beyond two days given what we have found in weather records there, which could prove tricky for the European lander and rover!" said co-author Jan-Peter Muller.

The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.