Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Careers Booklet

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 14 November 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5341, pp. 1273 - 1276
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5341.1273
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Warming Early Mars with Carbon Dioxide Clouds That Scatter Infrared Radiation

François Forget, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

Geomorphic evidence that Mars was warm enough to support flowing water about 3.8 billion years ago presents a continuing enigma that cannot be explained by conventional greenhouse warming mechanisms. Model calculations show that the surface of early Mars could have been warmed through a scattering variant of the greenhouse effect, resulting from the ability of the carbon dioxide ice clouds to reflect the outgoing thermal radiation back to the surface. This process could also explain how Earth avoided an early irreversible glaciation and could extend the size of the habitable zone on extrasolar planets around stars.

F. Forget, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique du CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Boite Postale 99, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. E-mail: forget{at}lmd.jussieu.fr
R. T. Pierrehumbert, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Sulfur Dioxide Climate Feedback on Early Mars.
I. Halevy, M. T. Zuber, and D. P. Schrag (2007)
Science 318, 1903-1907
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Weathering of iron-rich phases in simulated Martian atmospheres.
(2004)
Geology 32, 1033-1036
Environmental Effects of Large Impacts on Mars.
T. L. Segura, O. B. Toon, A. Colaprete, and K. Zahnle (2002)
Science 298, 1977-1980
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: Extreme climatic and geochemical global change and its biological consequences.
J. L. Kirschvink, E. J. Gaidos, L. E. Bertani, N. J. Beukes, J. Gutzmer, L. N. Maepa, and R. E. Steinberger (2000)
PNAS 97, 1400-1405
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Search for signs of ancient life on Mars: expectations from hydromagnesite microbialites, Salda Lake, Turkey.
M. J. RUSSELL, J. K. INGHAM, V. ZEDEF, D. MAKTAV, F. SUNAR, A. J. HALL, and A. E. FALLICK (1999)
Journal of the Geological Society 156, 869-888
   Abstract »    PDF »
A Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth.
P. F. Hoffman, A. J. Kaufman, G. P. Halverson, and D. P. Schrag (1998)
Science 281, 1342-1346
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Atmosphere-Surface Interactions on Mars: Delta 17O Measurements of Carbonate from ALH 84001 .
J. Farquhar, M. H. Thiemens, and T. Jackson (1998)
Science 280, 1580-1582
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Ancient Geodynamics and Global-Scale Hydrology on Mars.
R. J. Phillips, M. T. Zuber, S. C. Solomon, M. P. Golombek, B. M. Jakosky, W. B. Banerdt, D. E. Smith, R. M. E. Williams, B. M. Hynek, O. Aharonson, et al. (2001)
Science 291, 2587-2591
   Abstract »    Full Text »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)