Small fans vs Large fans
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by
mantej
Hi, as I browse through the pictures provided on this site, I notice some large fan features and some rather small fan features. This tells me that the wind speeds on Mars vary greatly. Could this be due to the Coriolis effect (similar to that of earth's) that leads smaller cells that have different wind speeds at one point throughout the planet? thanks for your time!
Posted
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by
Kitharode
moderator
The size of a fan will be affected by the amount of wind at the time of the dust venting through the ice, but it will also be affected by the amount of dust vented at the time. I guessing, but I think that small amounts of dust will form small fans and large amounts of dust will form larger fans, given the same amount of wind.
There is a Coriolis effect on Mars and it will have some effect on martian winds. I don't know how great the effect is, but my feeling is that it is fairly insignificant in affecting local wind patterns. Perhaps someone else will have more to say on this.
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by
mschwamb
scientist, translator
in response to mantej's comment.
Great question. We're looking at such a small area on Mars, that Coriolis isn't providing a strong impact on the size of the fans. Some of it is topography, wind strength, and probably the strength of the venting. In Ithaca the region we're focusing on now. It's thought that because it is so flat that's one of the reason the fans look so much bigger than other areas. Anya from the Science team talks more about this on the blog.
Cheers,
~Meg
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