RUNNING WATER FOUND AT MANY PLACES ON MARS

FIGURE 2A above shows RSL at Palikir Crater on Mars.  

WHAT ARE PERCHLORATES? Perchlorates are salts of perchloric acid. An example is potassium perchlorate (formula KClO₄). Figure 4A shows evidence in the form of spectra for magnesium perchlorate, sodium perchlorate and calcium perchlorate. Light is being absorbed at wavelengths of 1.9 and 2.1 microns. These wavelengths match what is seen with hydrated salts of perchlorate (ClO₄). This means that there is water in the molecular structure of these salts. Ojhu claims that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observes the surface of Mars every day at roughly 3 pm which is the driest time of day. He says that most of the liquid water will have been completely evaporated then. However, he states that the molecular water trapped inside the salts will have been a bit more stable and that is exactly what they observed. This means that the source of molecular water or water in the crystal structure of salts is either due to RSL or some other processes that created these streaks. Regardless the presence of hydrated salts in the slopes means that the streaks are due to contemporary liquid water. Likewise at Palikir Crater they see presence of hydrated salts only when the streaks are present.

WHAT WAS NEW AT NASA'S ANNOUNCEMENT AND WHAT CAN BE SAID ABOUT THE MOVIE?  Whereas much of the NASA press conference of September 28, 2015 was a repeat of what was known and published by the same people up to four years ago, it seems like what's new, although delayed for release to help publicize the opening of the movie THE MARTIAN (see the trailer here) four days later, was that there's a 100% correlation between detection of hydrated salts of perchlorates with the presence of RSL. Our family plans to see the movie on October 13, 2015 and I'll likely comment on it more then, but the movie trailer is of interest because the film was made with some collaboration with NASA, and at 48 seconds into the trailer astronaut Mark Watney gets literally blown off his feet in a storm. If Martian air pressure is as low as NASA claims, that would never happen on Mars. Note: The landing coordinates for Watney's fictional landing in Acidalia Planitia are 31.2° North, 28.5° West. There are RSL in Acidalia Planitia, but so far the only such evidence published for running water is at 35° North (I don't yet have the longitude) which would be 224.2 km/140.125 miles further north.

       As was stated earlier, evidence of running water is seen in  places with peak surface temperatures from ~250-300 K. On Earth pure water freezes at 273.15K and boils at 373.15K.  At the accepted low pressures on Mars (6.1 mbar at areiod, the Martian equivalent of sea level) Luju Ojha stated in the NASA press conference on September 28, 2015 that pure water is very unstable on Mars, being able to exist only between 0° C and 10° C (273.15K and 283.15K). He notes that it would boil above 10° C (50° F). He goes on to state that a perchlorate-brine form of salty water on Mars would stay liquid down to -70° C and not start boiling until the temperature reached 24° C (297.15K). The ~300K figure given above (which was from the 2011 article with Ojha's name on it) for areas with running water thus seems a little high, especially with issues related to latent heat of vaporization. Further, in examining our records for Mars Science Laboratory which is close to the Equator at 4.59° South there never was a temperature claimed (either before JPL revised its temperature data, or after) that was in the range of 300K or 297.15K. Nor was any such temperature recorded by any lander on Mars. Temperatures that high are only linked to what was allegedly seen from orbit. They are apparently also linked to ground temperatures on slopes that are inclined toward the sun. 

       We maintain weather data based on what the MSL's Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) originally pubished and often revised (at times after they saw our corrections or reviews). We believe that what we offer is the world's clearest view of MSL data problems. Table 3 below will take you to our records and show you what they recorded as high and low air and ground temperatures seen so far at MSL Curiosity.

TABLE 3 - LINKS TO OUR RECORDS OF MSL WEATHER DATA AND NASA REVISIONS OF THAT DATA.

* Note 1: For MSL Year 1 for minimum ground temperatures for the bulk of the first 443 days (with a hiatus in data until Sol 486) almost all original temperatures were revised down by 4 or 5 °C. The remaining temperatures remained essentially are the same. 

# Note 2: The ground temperatures are not very precise. Ground temperatures were supposed to be recorded with a thermopile on Boom 1 (which suffered some damage on landing). The ground temperature sensor requirement was to measure ground brightness temperature over the range from 150 to 300 K with a resolution of 2 K and an accuracy of 10 K. REMS has made a number of changes to ground temperatures they post since they began doing so in 2013.

WHAT IS THE REAL PRESSURE AT AREOID?  

To answer this question, which is essential to comment intelligently about the boiling point of water, we start with the all-important page is at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/ops/clouds_sunset.html. The photo can be found at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/ops/82453_full.jpg. The quote of interest for the photo is as follows:

“This is the first color image ever taken from the surface of Mars of an overcast sky. Featured are pink stratus clouds coming from the northeast at about 15 miles per hour (6.7 meters/second) at an approximate height of ten miles (16 kilometers) above the surface… The clouds consist of water ice condensed on reddish dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Clouds on Mars are sometimes localized and can sometimes cover entire regions, but have not yet been observed to cover the entire planet. The image was taken about an hour and forty minutes before sunrise by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) on Sol 16 at about ten degrees up from the eastern Martian horizon.”

The color photo mentioned above is shown on Figure 5. The evidence is based on stratus clouds seen 16 km above Mars Pathfinder.

           Pathfinder landed at 3.682 km below areoid, so 16 km above that would be an altitude of 12.318 km above areoid. Pathfinder is unlikely to have changed its own altitude very much over 16 sols.

       We first focus on what minimum pressure is required for stratus clouds to form in Earth’s atmosphere. The highest stratus clouds are cirrostratus. They occur at altitudes up to 13,000 meters. As is shown on Figure 5, at 13,000 meters the expected pressure on Earth is 163.33 mbar. With this pressure in mind we can make an estimate of pressure on Mars, but first we state the caveats. The pressures calculated do not factor in higher than terrestrial dust loads in the Martian atmosphere. Nor do they consider the gas composition of the Martian atmosphere (95% CO₂ vs. about 0.04% on Earth). So at best we are shooting here for a ball park estimate.  

       As is also shown on Figure 5, if we assume that (cirro) stratus clouds on Mars cannot form at a lower pressure than similar clouds on Earth, then using a scale height of 10.8 our spreadsheet indicates pressures of around 511 mbar at areoid, and pressures as high as 1,054 mbar at the bottom of the Hellas Basin (Note: Wikipedia lists the scale height for Mars as 11.1, however in accordance with a study by Hoekzema et al., 2006 we use 10.8). Using this same logic the indicated pressure for the MSL, 4.4 km below areoid, is about 767 mbar (767 hPa). There is an on-line boiling point/pressure calculator at http://www.trimen.pl/witek/calculators/wrzenie.html. Using it, at a pressure of 511 mbar the boiling point should be reduced from 100° C to 82° C. At MSL it should be about 93° C, and at the bottom of Hellas Basin it should be 101° C. However this doesn't mean that we should expect to see standing water, although we might find it. It's possible that as the water runs down the slope it might simply sink into porous rock at the bottom  Note that the calculator is not perfect. If you enter values of 1,013.25 mbar for pressure (average pressure at sea level on Earth) and 100° C for a boiling point, then use the triple point pressure of 6.1mbar (which is supposed to be the average pressure on Mars at areoid), it gives you a -1° C boiling point. To get a 0° C boiling point the pressure checked has to be at least 6.13 mbar. The triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. For water on Earth it is 273.16 K, 0.01 °C, or 32.018 °F. The highest pressure reported by MSL over its first 1,127 sols (Martian days) so far was 9.25 mbar. At that pressure the calculator has water boiling at only 6 °C.

       While most of the data put out by the MSL Remote Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) Team is only about 1% of the 740 to 747 hPa pressure first published for early September 2012, for five days   - September 1 to September 5, 2012 (and also nearly so at 735 hPa for August 30, 2012), they published pressures that were 97% in agreement with our 767 hPa calculation. The essential issue thus comes down to whether REMS published results that confused 747 hecto Pascals with 747 Pascals (7.47 hPa or 7.47 mbar). Or, did someone in the REMS Team rebel against expected results and in fact give us the truth until silenced? One REMS Team member was Henrik Kahanpää, the designer of the Vaisala pressure sensors used for both Phoenix and MSL. He was discussed in Section 2.4 of our Basic Report. Again, he wrote, "We should find out how the pressure tube is mounted in the spacecraft and if there are additional filters etc." We challenged the above statement on November 14, 2009. Kahanpää’s partial response to our assertion that "something stinks" about his request for information on additional filters was:

       “Your nose smelled also a real issue. The fact that we at FMI did not know how our sensor was mounted in the spacecraft and how many filters there were shows that the exchange of information between NASA and the foreign subcontractors did not work optimally in this mission!” (Kahanpää, personal communication on 12/15/2009).

       And so when this particular man allows reports to be issued for at least five days that back our projected pressures; issues of personnel, agendas, and possible disinformation should not be overlooked. The REMS reports in question are shown earlier on Figure 17A in our Basic Report.

       While Kahanpää was clear about his dissatisfaction with NASA is his discussion about how his sensor was employed with Phoenix, I have not seen him write anything about the massive confusion that occurred again with his sensor on MSL. I can only state that the Phoenix and MSL sensors were essentially the same (as was shown on Figure 11A of our Basic Report) and both delivered to NASA in 2008 (http://space.fmi.fi/solar.htm). However, with Kahanpää as the man on the REMS Team directly responsible for pressure reports from MSL (at least until possible censorship), we see that all four incidents of highest pressures reported have been eliminated – the first five days in September 2012 (cut a hundred-fold), the 1149 Pa pressure for Sol 370 (reduced to 865 Pa), the 940 Pa pressure (changed to N/A for Sol 192 on February 19, 2013) and 937 Pa for Sol 200 (February 27, 2013) also changed to N/A. 

WHERE DID THE WATER COME FROM TO COMBINE WITH PERCHLORATES?

On September 29, 2011 the European Space Agency published an article about how much water is on the Martian atmosphere. See "Evidence of Water Vapor in Excess of Saturation in the Atmosphere of Mars", by L. Maltagliati, F. Montmessin, A. Fedorova, O. Korablev, F. Forget, and J.-L. Bertaux, published in the 30 September 2011 issue of Science.

• Surprising new results, based on SPICAM data obtained during the northern spring and summer, indicate that the vertical distribution of water vapour in the Martian atmosphere is very different from previous assumptions.

• Writing in this week's issue of the journal Science, an international team led by Luca Maltagliati of the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) in Guyancourt, France, describe SPICAM observations at infrared wavelengths that for the first time provide evidence for the existence of supersaturated water vapour on Mars.

Supersaturation 

• The atmosphere of Mars holds 10 000 times less water vapour than that of Earth. However, water vapour is a very dynamic trace gas, and one of the most seasonally variable atmospheric constituents on Mars.

• Under normal conditions on Earth, water vapour condenses around tiny dust or aerosol particles or salts when the atmospheric temperature drops below a certain "dew point". The atmosphere is then said to be "saturated", since it cannot hold any more moisture at that temperature and pressure. Any water vapour in excess of the "dew point" will normally condense to form droplets or icy crystals. However, supersaturation may occur when some of the water vapour remains in the atmosphere, instead of condensing or freezing. When condensation nuclei (assumed to be dust aerosols on Mars) are too rare, condensation is impeded, leaving substantial amounts of excess vapour.

Transport of water vapour in the Martian atmosphere. (Click on the image for more detail on the processes depicted.) Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab

• Extremely high levels of supersaturation were found on Mars, up to 10 times greater than those found on Earth. Clearly, there is much more water vapour in the upper Martian atmosphere than anyone ever imagined. It seems that previous models have greatly underestimated the quantities of water vapour at heights of 20–50 km, with as much as 10 to 100 times more water than expected at this altitude.

OUR COMMENT: 100 times more water than expected is 2 orders of magnitude higher than expected. This matches what our Mars Correct team believes is true of Martian air pressure. It is almost this much higher than what our Government has been stating, about 511 mbar at areoid rather than 6.1 mbar. Other highlights of the ESA artice follow:

• Until now, it was generally assumed that such supersaturation cannot exist in the cold Martian atmosphere: any water vapour in excess of saturation was expected to be converted immediately into ice. However, the SPICAM data have revealed that supersaturation occurs frequently in the middle atmosphere – at altitudes of up to 50 km above the surface – during the aphelion season, the period when Mars is near its farthest point from the Sun.

• "The data suggest that much more water vapour is being carried high enough in the atmosphere to be affected by photodissociation," added Franck Montmessin, also from LATMOS, who is the Principal Investigator for SPICAM and a co-author of the paper. "Solar radiation can split the water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which can then escape into space. This has implications for the rate at which water has been lost from the planet and for the long-term evolution of the Martian surface and atmosphere."

• The new paper analyses SPICAM data obtained when the Martian atmosphere is relatively dust-free. The absence of dust enables the instrument to measure the vertical profile to within 10 km of the planet's surface. The supersaturation levels are likely to plummet in the southern summer, when dust storms inject large amounts of aerosols into the atmosphere, increasing the supply of condensation nuclei.

NOTE: As is shown on the figure below, at no point in the 1,127 sols since landing (as of October 12, 2015) have any relative humidity figures been included on reports by JPL's REMS Team.

OTHER THAN RUNNING WATER ON MARS, WHAT OTHER SURPRISES HAVE WE SEEN THAT ARE INCONSISTENT WITH ACCEPTED LOW PRESSURE ON MARS?

1. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) employed an aero-braking process. Its navigation team relied on an atmospheric model called the Mars-GRAM (Global Reference Atmospheric Model). Mars-GRAM is a computer database of information from what previous missions have encountered. It provided a prediction of the atmospheric density, giving the navigators an estimate of how far down into the atmosphere the spacecraft should go. The atmospheric density that MRO actually experienced was much different than what was predicted by the Mars GRAM (Atkinson, 2006).The most notable in the Atkinson article was, “At some points in the atmosphere, we saw a difference in the atmospheric density by a factor of 1.3, which means it was 30% higher than the model," said Han You, Navigation Team Chief for MRO. "That's quite a bit, but around the South Pole we saw an even larger scale factor of up to 4.5, so that means it was 350% off of the Mars GRAM model."
   

2. Moving barchans sand dunes. "In discussing the movement of massive Barchan sand dunes, Nathan Bridges, (Planetary scientist, Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory) said, “Mars either has more gusts of wind than we knew about before, or the winds are capable of transporting more sand."
   

3. Snow seen falling at Phoenix. This was not unexpected. Richardson et al. (2002) discussed snow on Mars before it was seen by Phoenix, but they declared that in order to get a good fit to all other data, cloud ice particle sizes must be used that are about an order of magnitude too large (that is, 20 µm rather than the 2 µm observed). They state that “significant work remains to be done assessing the quality of GCM predictions of Martian circulation vigor and resultant tracer transport.” They concede the need to bump up ice particle size to levels that are “unrealistically large.” While they were not specific about why the ice particles need to be so much bigger than those seen, it would make sense that if pressure were as low as advertised by NASA, the 2 µm ice particles would sublimate back into the atmosphere before the snow could fall, but that at 20 µm it could survive to hit the surface at such low pressures. If so, it follows that 2 µm ice particles survive because in fact the pressure is much higher than NASA has been telling us. Wherever we look at the weather plainly seen on Mars; our eyes, if open must refute pressures under 10 mbar.
   

4. Frequency and location of dust devils. Our 6+ year study began with the question of how dust devils (shown on Mars below) could form if pressure is under 10 mbar (a near vacuum). The film clip below covers 12 minutes 17 seconds of what was seen by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit at Gusev Crater on Spirit Sol 543 (July 13, 2005). NASA AMES try to replicate them but had to kick the winds in their simulation up to 155 miles per hour, about three times the highest winds seen by Viking 1 and Viking 2. No other landers were able to accurately measure wind speed and direction. Dust devils are even seen in the caldera of Arsia Mons, a volcano that is 17 km above areoid (the equivalent of sea level on Mars) where pressure should be down to about 1 millibar, a thousandth of average Earth pressure.
   

    

   Large Version (5.7 MB)

5. Stratus clouds 16 km above Mars Pathfinder.
   

6. Spiral storms over Arsia Mons with eyewalls that are 10 km wide.