Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2021

Presentation information

[J] Poster

O (Public ) » Public

[O-07] Poster presentations by senior high school students

Sun. Jun 6, 2021 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM Ch.27

convener:Tatsuhiko Hara(International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Building Research Institute), Katsuyoshi Michibayashi(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Nagoya University), Miwa Kuri(Japan Meteorological Agency), Keiko Konya(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

1:45 PM - 3:15 PM

[O07-P61] Decline and Fall of Martian Polar Capse; Whether the Dast Storm Is Warm the Polar Cap

*Kei Inoue1, Hibiki Aminaka1, Yuho Takagi1, Nanami Yasuda1, Yuki Tanaka1, Tomoki Ugawa1, Rio Mogi1, Kyouka Miyake1, Momoha Takashima1, Mako Misumi1, Kaho Okada1 (1.Kumamoto Prefectural Daiichi High School)

Mars in 2020 approached the earth for the first in two years. According to our previous research, Mars in 2018 had a global dust storm which cover Mars. It turned out that the dust storm promoted increasing in temperature and it decreased Martian polar ice cup’s surface area earlier than usual. Therefore, we set up a hypothesis that a dust storm warms up Mars’s atmosphere. The purposes of this study are researching Martian south polar ice cup’s surface area change in 2020 and we reveal the effect of the dust storm on Mars’s atmosphere through the experiment.

We collected 169 photos of Mars taken in all over the world from Internet, and we calculated Martian polar ice cup’s surface area. As a result, we found the area change is the same as Mars without a dust storm. We can say that the dust heats up Mars’s atmosphere. Moreover, we found Mars in 2020 had a dust storm from November 12 but it had nothing to the area change because the polar cap had been very small.

In the second place, we tried the experiment to consider atmospheric effects by using pyranometers and incandescent light bulb. We prepared the following four models. “Dust floating in the high altitude”, “Dust floating in the low altitude”, “There is no dust”, “Volcanic ash covering the earth”. We substituted the rock wool for the dust and volcanic ash. We observed temperature change through warming each model with incandescent light bulb.

The following are result of the experiment. Model with the largest temperature rise was “Dust floating in the low altitude”. In addition, this kept holding heat even after turning off the light. Model with the second largest temperature rise was “There is no dust”. However there was sudden temperature drop. “Dust floating in high altitude” hardly increased in temperature compared to the above two. “Volcanic ash covering the earth” had very little change. This is most unaffected by solar radiation.

According to results of the experiment, dust storm in 2018 corresponds to “Dust floating in low altitude”. Volcanic ash reduces temperature then there are dusts in the sky. (Parasol effect) On the other hand, the global dust storm has the ability to increase temperature.(Greenhouse effect) In this way, there is the exact opposite temperature change. We consider the cause is dusts rise from the surface of Mars.

We want to keep continuing this study. Future prospects are elucidation of the dust storm mechanism and occurrence condition. In addition, we will use the experimental methods. For example, not only Mars, but also phenomena on earth.