Dust storms causing warming on Mars?
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070404_gw_mars.html
Strange idea since I assumed that particles in the atmosphere would reflect sunlight and cause cooling. They also say that when winds blow dust away from an area, the dark ground underneath absorbs more heat. So far so good, but the dust must be lighter than the dark ground, so when the dust storm is over and the dark ground is covered up again, it seems like the albedo of Mars would be higher and thus it would reflect more sunlight thus leading to cooling.
The article seems to be trying to find alternatives to Sun output and changes in Mars' orbit to explain the warming. Fair enough, but it doesn't seem to me like they have enough data to support their conclusions, just some computer model outputs.
Strange idea since I assumed that particles in the atmosphere would reflect sunlight and cause cooling. They also say that when winds blow dust away from an area, the dark ground underneath absorbs more heat. So far so good, but the dust must be lighter than the dark ground, so when the dust storm is over and the dark ground is covered up again, it seems like the albedo of Mars would be higher and thus it would reflect more sunlight thus leading to cooling.
The article seems to be trying to find alternatives to Sun output and changes in Mars' orbit to explain the warming. Fair enough, but it doesn't seem to me like they have enough data to support their conclusions, just some computer model outputs.
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