Mars Water-Ice Clouds and Precipitation

Abstract

Phoenix Ascending: The Phoenix mission landed on Mars in March 2008 with the goal of studying the ice-rich soil of the planet's northern arctic region. Phoenix included a robotic arm, with a camera attached to it, with the capacity to excavate through the soil to the ice layer beneath it, scoop up soil and water ice samples, and deliver them to a combination of other instruments—including a wet chemistry lab and a high-temperature oven combined with a mass spectrometer—for chemical and geological analysis. Using this setup, Smith et al. (p. 58 ) found a layer of ice at depths of 5 to 15 centimeters, Boynton et al. (p. 61 ) found evidence for the presence of calcium carbonate in the soil, and Hecht et al. (p. 64 ) found that most of the soluble chlorine at the surface is in the form of perchlorate. Together these results suggest that the soil at the Phoenix landing site must have suffered alteration through the action of liquid water in geologically the recent past. The analysis revealed an alkaline environment, in contrast to that found by the Mars Exploration Rovers, indicating that many different environments have existed on Mars. Phoenix also carried a lidar, an instrument that sends laser light upward into the atmosphere and detects the light scattered back by clouds and dust. An analysis of the data by Whiteway et al. (p. 68 ) showed that clouds of ice crystals that precipitated back to the surface formed on a daily basis, providing a mechanism to place ice at the surface.