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New Insights into Mars’ Water Distribution Through Enhanced Climate Modeling
The exploration of Mars, often hailed as the next significant frontier in space discovery, raises numerous questions among scientists. Once characterized by a warmer and wetter environment with the presence of liquid oceans, Mars is now a cold and arid planet, with the majority of its water resources hidden beneath its surface. Gaining insights into the subsurface water reserves is vital for future energy exploration and the potential for sustaining life on the planet.
A research team from Tohoku University is contributing to this understanding by refining an existing climate model focused on Mars. This enhanced model takes into account the diverse characteristics of Martian regolith, which consists of loose deposits of solid rock that form the planet’s soil.
According to researcher Mirai Kobayashi, prior models have not adequately recognized that laboratory findings indicate the regolith’s water retention ability is significantly affected by its adsorption coefficient.
“Previous models that estimate the distribution of water, both on the surface and below, have treated the properties of Mars’ regolith as if they were uniform across the globe. This is at odds with data collected from orbiters and landers, which show considerable variation in the physical characteristics of Martian regolith,” Kobayashi explained.
The updated model provides estimates of the distribution of subsurface water down to depths of 2 meters beneath the Martian surface. It reveals that the highly absorbing regolith, particularly in the planet’s mid- and low-latitude regions, retains significant amounts of water, akin to a sponge. The research found that some of this water exists as stable, adsorbed water on the surface of the regolith.
Furthermore, the study indicates that the soil composition on Mars can potentially maintain ice close to the surface in these middle and lower latitudes due to the slower movement of water vapor. This characteristic allows the soil to effectively trap water over extended periods, providing crucial information about historical changes in water availability on Mars.
“Our findings underscore the necessity of considering both the absorption properties and non-uniformity of Martian regolith when predicting surface water presence on Mars,” stated Takeshi Kuroda, who spearheaded the research alongside colleagues Kobayashi, Arihiro Kamada, and Naoki Terada. “The model’s applications are broad; it can assist in analyzing alterations in Martian water over time and its potential migration deeper towards the planet’s mantle.”
As numerous missions to Mars, including the Japan-led Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) and the collaborative Mars Ice Mapper (MIM) projects, are in progress, this refined model is poised to support further research aimed at developing detailed subsurface water maps of the Martian landscape.
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