8/17/12 Mars Daily Weather Forecasts



Hazy Mars Day
Courtesy: marsweather.com

Ever wonder what the weather would be like on a day to day basis on Mars? Now you don't have to!

Beginning this past Wednesday, daily weather forecasts will be posted for Gale Crater on Mars.

Gale Crater is where the Curiosity rover landed back on August 5th. On board Curiosity is a weather monitoring station, called Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), that collects data on wind speed and direction, maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, pressure, and even UV levels, just in case you wanted to know what your sunburn likelihood would be on Mars. There is a wide variety of weather on Mars; everything from sunny skies to intense dust storms. You can see pictures of said dust storms, hazy days, and sunny days on the Mars Weather Blog. This blog, written by astronauts and other NASA employees, not only describes how the weather impacts Curiosity, but also details all the data collected, and what it means.



Mars Weather Data
Courtesy: marsweather.com

 The interesting thing here is that they aren't just collecting weather data; they are also trying to forecast! Yes, they are using the current conditions, along with the other satellite data, and actually trying to forecast the weather for the next day. They will only be forecasting the high temperature, low temperature, UV Index, and sky condition (cloudy, sunny, dust storm, etc.)

Just in case you would like to have updates with you on the go, there is an app for that! Both iPhone and Android will have these in the next few weeks.

If you are interested in seeing the weather on Mars for yourself, here's the website:
http://marsweather.com/

Curiosity Rover
Courtesy: Baltimore Sun