Shortcuts: Information Teacher's Guide Late Martian Weather! Images of the Martian Atmosphere Atmospheric Comparisons Lessons & Activities Tools Daily Martian Weather Report

The Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science Team will acquire thousands of profiles of the martian atmosphere during the course of the MGS mission. The main mapping phase of the mission began in March, 1999. This phase of the mission concluded successfully, and the mission entered an extended mapping phase in January, 2001. The atmospheric profiles include precise temperature and pressure measurements as a function of height above the martian surface, and will allow Team members to observe the weather on Mars for more than one complete martian year (687 days). The Team is sharing this data with the participants in their outreach program. Students gain access to martian weather data when results are available, and they may compare the martian weather data with their own observations of Earth's atmosphere. Tools to access the martian atmospheric data and to view graphs of the data and the experimental conditions on Mars when the data were acquired are available on this Web site. Tools are also available for students to upload their own measurements of Earth's atmosphere and to view graphs of their observations. In addition, an extensive set of introductory lessons and activities are available to acquaint students with the fundamentals of atmospheres, weather and climate. The site also includes a detailed Teacher's Guide. The martian atmospheric data are freely available. If you are a teacher and would like to have your classes record their own local weather measurements for comparison with the data from Mars, please register with joe@nova.stanford.edu.

Visit this page to find the dates for which data are available, and use these tools to retrieve the data and to generate graphs of the data and the conditions under which it was acquired. The latest martian weather observations may also be seen at a glance, along with maps of Mars showing the locations of all of the atmospheric measurements to date. You may click on the location of any observation to see the surface weather information for that point! Selected temperature and pressure profiles of the martian atmosphere are also available. These profiles show the vertical structure of the atmosphere at the time and place where a radio occultation experiment was conducted.

Departments

Information

Visit this page for a brief summary of the MGS mission, the MGS Radio Science Team and their investigation of the martian atmosphere, and the MGS Radio Science Team Education Outreach Program.

Teacher's Guide

This guide details the purpose and goals of the outreach program, and describes for educators the nuts and bolts of how the program is organized.

Late Martian Weather!

Visit this page to see the latest martian weather observations at a glance. The page also includes a color-coded topographic map of Mars with the locations of all of the atmospheric measurements of the MGS Radio Science Team!

Images of the Martian Atmosphere

This page contains links to incredible images of martian atmospheric and weather phenomena (with captions) from the MGS Mars Orbiter Camera, the Mars Pathfinder and the Hubble Space Telescope!

Atmospheric Comparisons

This department contains dozens of questions about the atmospheres of Earth and Mars which participants in the MGS Radio Science Team education outreach program may answer based on the martian meteorological data provided to them by the MGS RST and data from Earth's atmosphere recorded by outreach program participants. Many of the questions are not easy!

Introductory Lessons & Activities

Together with a local teaching consultant, an extensive set of lessons and activities have been developed to provide program participants with an introduction to atmospheres, weather and climate. Participants who study the lessons and perform some or all of the activities before they first access the martian atmospheric data will be in a position to better understand the data and will be able to make more meaningful comparisons between the martian data and their own observations of Earth's atmosphere.

Data Transfer & Visualization Tools

Simple forms have been created which allow students to transfer martian atmospheric data from the Web server at Stanford, and to upload their own local atmospheric measurements to the outreach program database at Stanford. Another form has been created which allows students to retrieve their own atmospheric measurements from the Stanford Web server. Forms have also been created which allow students to generate and view graphs of the martian atmospheric data and of the experimental conditions on Mars when the data were acquired, and to generate and view graphs of the atmospheric measurements of all of the program participants.

Daily Martian Weather Report

This Web site contains information about the MGS Radio Science Team and their investigation of the martian atmosphere with the radio occultation technique. It describes how the Team uses radio transmissions from the MGS spacecraft to probe the martian atmosphere and determine its structure.