REVISED REMS TEAM MARS WEATHER REPORTS

REMS TEAM CAUGHT ALTERING TEMPERATURE DATA - SEE FIGURE 1. After we spent two days posting all the data in Table 1 below, we found that on the night of July 1, 2013 the REMS Team site only went up to Sol 275. Further the ground temperatures given were markedly lower than earlier in the day. For example, for Sol 275 they showed a minimum ground temperature of -101° C but earlier in the day they posted -67° C. They also changed their minimum air temperature for this date from -70° C to -116° C. In working back through their data, we were horrified to see that they changed much or most of their data on July 1, 2103 back to the very first sol when they listed the minimum ground temperature as -27° C before, but altered it to -50° C! This would have required us to publish a Table 2 to reflect their new attempt to guess at ground temperature, but we decided to allow them a few days to stabilize their chart. By early on July 3, 2013 Figure 1 shows that they again altered their figures. In the case of Sol 275 the minimum air temperature changed from -116° C to -67° C, and the minimum ground temperature changed from -101° C to -67° C. Sol 1's minimum ground temperature changed back from -50° C to -27° C again. However, by the end of the day on July 3 it appeared as though the data was restored to what they advertised back on July 1, 2013, but it was all very different from what was published back to August 2012.

       Comparing all this new data with earler REMS data is hard because early dating was so out of order so many times (see Figure 4), but we did the best we could on Table 1.  However when looking at the early parts of this data presentation we do see evidence of data manipulation that smacks of dishonesty. For example, in addition to the more obvious changes in pressures units from hectopascals down to pascals that resulted pressure readings only 1% of the original reported pressures for September 1 to 5, 2012, there were four dates that I focused on in my earlier reporting that were somewhat higher than expected. They were for Sols 19, 21, 35 and 40. The new report shows pressures reduced on Sol 19 from 785 to 719 Pa, on Sol 21 from 790 to 741 Pa, on Sol 35 from 799 to 749 Pa and on Sol 40 from 804 to 753 Pa. In each case the net result is to make the pressure curve conform to what was expected based on Viking 1 and Viking 2 pressure curves. The data presented thus appears to be a hoax, plain and simple. This trend was definitely repeated when we compared original air temperatures with the new ones. In fact, if the goal was to make Mars look bad, then that is exactly what they did. They took over 70 sols that had high temperatures above freezing and dropped them to below freezing. As the cliche goes, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive."

TABLE 1. Table 1 below shows how the weather at MSL varied between landing on August 6, 2012 and Sol 682 on July 7, 2014. Color coding is as follows:

Column A (Sol). The Martian day is about 39 minutes longer than the terrestrial day. Occasionally (at MSL Sols 34, 106, 179, 215, 252, 267, 288, 328 (etc. as the chart grew) the REMS reports indicated 2 days forward but only 1 sol forward. These days flagged with a gray background.

Column B (Ls) is highlighted when seasons change or minimum pressures are seen as with Ls 157 and 147.

Columns D and E are highlighted in yellow or red when there are minor (yellow) or major changes in pressure published by the REMS Team. Red background with red letters are shown for times when the new REMS reported switched from hPa to Pa (September 1 to 5), or changed sol numbering (August 31).

Columns F and G show a very disturbing effort made by the REMS Team and JPL to alter almost all previous air temperatures that were above freezing to now read below freezing. We think this is more evidence of a deliberate effort made to paint Mars in a way that is less likely to procure funding for manned flight there. We used to assume that at least some of the pressure data was faked, but not the temperature data. Now we know that data manipulation, alteration, and manufacture has crept into all areas of MSL data.

Column I shows the air temperature range for each sol. On Earth temperatures can vary by 40 °C in deserts. In column H where the range is 60 °C or less light blue background coloring points that out.

Column J allows us to compare terrestrial deserts with Gale Crater, Mars. How much cooling occurs at night is related to the density of the atmosphere. Here we see the ratio of cooling on a Mars sol to the 40 °C cooling figure for Earth's deserts shown with a blue background when that ratio is under 1.5, or with red when the ratio drops to 1.3 or less.

As with terrestrial deserts, the ground on Mars heats more during the day than the air does, and it cools more at night than the air does. In Column K when the maximum ground temperature is given by REMS is between 1°C and 9°C it is shown with red background or more, if it is 10 °C  or more it has an orange background. 

Column L shows the minimum ground temperature. When it is -80 °C to -89 °C that is shown with a dark blue background.  When it is -90 °C or colder the background is in black.

Column M shows the increase in temperature from the mast 1.5 meters above the ground down to the ground during the daylight hours. In column M anytime there is an increase in temperature of 20 °C or more this in indicated with a red background. All ground temperatures were left off all the daily weather reports until July, 2013. In the first 682 sols of MSL (revised) weather reports there were 78 sols in which the value of temperature increases in column M was at least 20 °C.

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). Assuming that Guy Webster (JPL P.R.) was correct when he told me that only the wind sensor was damaged on Boom1, the ground temperature sensor was supposed to view the Martian surface to the side of the rover through a filter with a passband of 8 to 14 microns. The 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.

Column N shows the decrease in temperature from the ground to the air at nights. If the data were valid we would expect similar heating or cooling to occur over the set distance from ground to boom. A quick survey of the data immediately shows that this was not found. In column N we see a variation in heating between 0 °C and over 30 °C. For nighttime cooling any variation from 11°C to 19°C is shown with a medium blue background. More than that is shown with a dark blue background. For night time cooling any variation over 10 °C is shown with a blue background.

       NOTE: There is much more to this article after the 682 sols of weather data in the Table below. Please scan down the page to see it.