NASA’s MAVEN probe shows how wind circulates in Mars’ upper atmosphere
High above the surface of Mars, winds circulate from dayside to night, and the air undulates as it passes over mountains and valleys far below, a new study shows. These insights come courtesy of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which now has provided the first detailed maps of winds in the Martian thermosphere, one of the highest layers of the planet’s atmosphere. The data, described in the Dec. 13 Science, could help researchers better understand how the Red Planet’s climate has changed over time by looking into how Mars’ atmosphere bleeds into space. “Looking at how gas circulates in that layer allows us to better understand the rate at which the atmosphere is being lost and the way it’s being lost,” says study author Mehdi Benna, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Wind movement in Mars’ thermosphere is much simpler than on Earth, data from the orbiter show. A single circulating flow persists from season to season, continually moving...