Planet Four Talk

Mars Seasonal question

  • HMB6EQUJ5 by HMB6EQUJ5

    If when reading articles relating to seasons on Mars (using Ls 90 e.g.) is there a general assumption in the astronomical community that the author is referring to northern hemisphere rather than southern when using the Ls designation? Or is it incumbent to also specify not only the Ls but also what hemisphere one is referring to at that time. thx in advance........learning as we go 😃

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator

    I think this should answer your question. It's a blog post I wrote awhile ago about timekeeping and dates on Mars.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • hnavas88 by hnavas88

    I think authors take as a reference the north pole to determine Mars's season, when summers is at north, south is vice versa. Ls is the Areocentric longitude of the sun along Mars's elliptic. When the Ls=00 Northern spring, Southern autumn, Ls= 2700 and nearest to the sun, Northern winter and Southern summer, Ls=1800, northern autumn and southern spring, Ls=900, Northern summer/ Southern winter.
    These links have good information about Mars's season:
    http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/calendar/2013-2014_MarsCalendar.pdf
    http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/General_Info_Mars.htm

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to hnavas88's comment.

    Hi,

    Yep that's correct. . Ls=0 is northern spring (though it looks like you've got an extra 0 in all of your numbers (i don't think there's a good way on Talk to make the superscript degree sign). There's a new Mars calendar out for 2015-2016 you can find it here.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • p.titchin by p.titchin in response to mschwamb's comment.

    'alt gr'/shift 0 should give you the degree symbol, ie. ° ~ Pete

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