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Originally published in Science Express on 15 January 2009
Science 20 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5917, pp. 1041 - 1045
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165243
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Reports

Strong Release of Methane on Mars in Northern Summer 2003

Michael J. Mumma,1* Geronimo L. Villanueva,2,3 Robert E. Novak,4 Tilak Hewagama,3,5 Boncho P. Bonev,2,3 Michael A. DiSanti,3 Avi M. Mandell,3 Michael D. Smith3

Living systems produce more than 90% of Earth's atmospheric methane; the balance is of geochemical origin. On Mars, methane could be a signature of either origin. Using high-dispersion infrared spectrometers at three ground-based telescopes, we measured methane and water vapor simultaneously on Mars over several longitude intervals in northern early and late summer in 2003 and near the vernal equinox in 2006. When present, methane occurred in extended plumes, and the maxima of latitudinal profiles imply that the methane was released from discrete regions. In northern midsummer, the principal plume contained ~19,000 metric tons of methane, and the estimated source strength (≥0.6 kilogram per second) was comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, California.

1 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mailstop 690.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
2 Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20008, USA.
3 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mailstop 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
4 Department of Physics, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY 10801, USA.
5 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742–2421, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: michael.j.mumma{at}nasa.gov

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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W. B. Sparks, J. Hough, T. A. Germer, F. Chen, S. DasSarma, P. DasSarma, F. T. Robb, N. Manset, L. Kolokolova, N. Reid, et al. (2009)
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