Mysterious cloud on Mars.

[Green Baron]

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one he said,

the chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one .... but still, they come."

In Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, after the cited novel from H. G. Wells :-)

[kerbiloid]

But if this not a volcanic cloud, why is source is so pointy?

We need to go deeper. Literally.

Spoiler

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, Green Baron said:

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one he said,

the chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one .... but still, they come."

In Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, after the cited novel from H. G. Wells :-)

Come on Thunderchild

[Gargamel]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:



Imagine seeing those lava lakes roiling......

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

26 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Imagine seeing those lava lakes roiling......

 

Spoiler

 

 

[NSEP]

11 hours ago, Green Baron said:

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one he said,

the chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one .... but still, they come."

In Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds, after the cited novel from H. G. Wells :-)

I have been binge listening that album for the past few days.

[Scotius]

12 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Imagine seeing those lava lakes roiling......

Uh... from far away, i hope. Orbit would be a nice and cozy viewing point

[Green Baron]

15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

But if this not a volcanic cloud, why is source is so pointy?

 

It isnt really, it is the view from orbit. The origin is the lee side of the mountain top. If you were under it it might reach over most of the sky.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Green Baron

[lajoswinkler]

It's not new nor mysterious except in the eyes of the sensationalist online media. It's been observed on several occasions. It happens on Earth, too. Here's a small example.

[Green Baron]

These lenticularis clouds can even stand several storeys tall over the mountain range and if the wind is excited into waves they reach in echelons far behind it, up to a few hundreds of km out into the forelands and frequently connected to a strong foehn in the Alps and surely to the great American north/south mountain ranges as well.

Extreme example over the Andes.

 

Besides the vortices pictured up in the thread, banner clouds are another variation of lee clouds, excited by local orography. Example http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap08/banner.html

What exactly it needs for the Marsian atmosphere in terms of humidity, wind speed, pressure difference and if it is water ice indeed, i am sure one day soon(tm) somebody will find out :-)

 

Edited October 29, 2018 by Green Baron

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

Reminds me of kombucha

 

[cubinator]

1 minute ago, Green Baron said:

i am sure one day soon(tm) somebody will find out :-)

Yeah I'll just stick a glass out the window during EDL and see if I get enough to take a sip.

In all seriousness, weather balloons would probably not get nearly high enough on Mars to be useful. Probably the best way to do atmospheric science would be with sounding rockets. 

[FleshJeb]

22 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

But if this not a volcanic cloud, why is source is so pointy?

We need to go deeper. Literally.

[Martian volcano photos]

 

I'm assuming there's a vertical exaggeration in those photos? Do you know how much?

[kerbiloid]

3 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

'm assuming there's a vertical exaggeration in those photos? Do you know how much?

Quote

The volcano is 435 kilometres (270 mi) in diameter, almost 20 kilometres (12 mi) high (more than 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) higher than the surrounding plains

So, actually diameter : visible height ~= 48:1

[Green Baron]

34 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

I'm assuming there's a vertical exaggeration in those photos? Do you know how much?

I don't think so.

A detail photo, apparently in an early phase of the development (21. Sept):

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/10/Mars_elongated_cloud_21_September

Edited October 29, 2018 by Green Baron

[FleshJeb]

On 10/29/2018 at 12:34 PM, Green Baron said:

I don't think so.

A detail photo, apparently in an early phase of the development (21. Sept):

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/10/Mars_elongated_cloud_21_September

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA02804

After doing some “eyeball figuring” on @kerbiloid s image with his dimensions, I guessed it was 10 : 1. Seems pretty close to the above link, which is listed at that scale.

Your photo appears flatter, but it’s a much more overhead shot.

I’m on my phone, otherwise I’d dig deeper. I think Google Earth has a Mars model, I’ll take a look at it later with vert exaggeration on and off.

[Green Baron]

If i am not mistaken the ESA pictures of the cloud are real photos, no digital elevation modelling. I don't think they are retouched for height exaggeration (how so ?) except for colouring and contrast.

The cloud may well stand several times the height of the obstacle above it, if we take similar phenomena on earth as a comparison. But i am sure future will tell us more about it.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Green Baron