Radar Map of Buried Mars Layers Confirms Climate Cycles

Matt_dk writes "A radar instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has essentially looked below the surface of the Red Planet's north-polar ice cap, and found data to confirm theoretical models of Martian climate swings during the past few million years. The new, three-dimensional map using 358 radar observations provides a cross-sectional view of the north-polar layered deposits. 'The radar has been giving us spectacular results,' said Jeffrey Plaut of JPL, a member of the science team for the Shallow Radar instrument. 'We have mapped continuous underground layers in three dimensions across a vast area.'"

Comments

I'm not interested unlesss it confirms my views

[j-turkey]

Yes, but does it coincide with the industrial revolution? Does it fit the hockey stick model?

Gratuitous Global Warming Comment

[Anonymous Coward]

I better post this as anonymous, before the true believers mod me into oblivion. But if we see evidence of climate change on a planet that barely even has an atmosphere to speak of, maybe we're not giving the power our own sun enough scrutiny in the global warming debate.

Re:Gratuitous Global Warming Comment

[Jhon]

And does that explain the warming noticed on Jupiter, Titan, Pluto and various asteroids to name a few?

Not saying there is no anthropogenic impact on climate -- I'm just saying it's total impact may be over stated and contributing to an already occurring phenomenon.

I certainly HOPE we have the ability to effect climate as much as claim. Living in a hot, jungle world or a cold ice world have little appeal to me. And since those climates have occurred in our past, we can assume they will most likely recur at some time in the future. Be nice to warm up the earth before an ice age or cool it down when it gets too hot.

Doesn't Speak to Climate Change Here on Earth

[MarkPNeyer]

The existence of natural climate change on Mars does not rule out anthropogenic climate change on Earth. The shifts in temperature on Mars happened over periods of hundreds of thousands of years. The climate change we're observing on earth has happened in less than 100 years. There's a huge difference between the two phenomena.

Re:Unacceptable--this threatens Gore's bottom line

[hamburger lady]

actually, this is evidence that climatologists' theoretical models work.

Re:Global Warming

[4D6963]

Translation : Sometimes people are wrong. Therefore let's dismiss anything we don't like as potentially wrong.