DIURNAL VARIATION IN AIR TEMPERATURES AT MSL ON MARS

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This page under construction on 8/4/2016

This article was begun on August 1, 2016, just five days shy of the 4^th (terrestrial) anniversary of the landing of MSL on Mars. It is also well past two Martian years since landing. While most people who look at Mars weather statistics see only the numbers presented by NASA that we offer here, we have so thoroughly audited what they have issued that frankly we are beginning to feel as though we have lived at Gale Crater, Mars ever since the landing there on August 6, 2012. As such, we have often noted that while night air temperatures are fairly steady there is much more variation in day temperatures. To get a measure of this variation we focus here only on sols where the low air temperature was -74° C. As Figure 1 and Table 1 show on such days the air corresponding highs varied from +3° C down to as low as -27° C, a range of 30 ° C (54° C). If, as NASA contends, there were a near vacuum atmosphere, we would expect far less variation. Table 1 shows the same data as was presented on Figure 1 but it adds the calculation results for the length of daylight hours for each solar longitude (Ls) where a minimum air temperature of -74° C was recorded between landing of the Mars Science Laboratory on August 6, 2012 (Sol 1) and Sol 1,417 on August 1, 2016. The full calculations for day length at all solar longitudes are provided on this site at Table 5 of Martian Sunrise and Sunset Calculations.

TABLE 1 Summary of MSL length of daylight hours and high air temperatures for MSL sols in which the low air temperature was -74° C.
	B	C	D	E	F
DATA LINE WITH -74°C LOW	SEASON	LS	MSL SOL NUMBER	~HOURS AND MINUTES OF DAYLIGHT	HIGH TEMP °C
1	WINTER YEAR 1	157	13	11 hr 55.04 min	-15
2	WINTER YEAR 1	157	14	11 hr 55.04 min	-16
3	WINTER YEAR 1	161	21	11 hr 56.12 min	-3
4	WINTER YEAR 1	162	22	11 hr 56.40 min	-6
5	WINTER YEAR 1	166	30	11 hr 57.50 min	-3
6	WINTER YEAR 1	167	31	11 hr 57.77 min	-23
7	WINTER YEAR 1	173	43	11 hr 59.44 min	-12
8	WINTER YEAR 1	175	45	11 hr 59.99 min	-9
9	WINTER YEAR 1	175	46	12 hr 0 min	-12
10	WINTER YEAR 1	177	49	12 hr 0.56 min	-10
11	WINTER YEAR 1	179	52	12 hr 1.12 min	-7
12	SPRING YEAR 1	180	55	12 hr 1.41 min	-2
13	SPRING YEAR 1	182	58	12 hr 1.96 min	0
14	SPRING YEAR 1	186	64	12 hr 3.09 min	0
15	SPRING YEAR 1	202	91	12 hr 7.53 min	-1
16	SPRING YEAR 1	202	92	12 hr 7.54 min	-1
17	SPRING YEAR 1	229	134	12 hr 14.31 min	-1
18	SUMMER YEAR 1	339	311	12 hr 7.25 min	-8
19	SUMMER YEAR 1	341	315	12 hr 6.71 min	-10
20	SUMMER YEAR 1	341	316	12 hr 6.4 min	-16
21	SUMMER YEAR 1	342	318	12 hr 6.43 min	-4
22	SUMMER YEAR 1	344	320	12 hr 5.88 min	-4
23	SUMMER YEAR 1	345	322	12 hr 5.60 min	-5
24	SUMMER YEAR 1	345	323	12 hr 5.48 min	-6
25	SUMMER YEAR 1	347	327	12 hr 5.05min	-8
26	SUMMER YEAR 1	348	329	12 hr 4.77 min	-7
27	SUMMER YEAR 1	349	331	12 hr 4.49 min	-3
28	SUMMER YEAR 1	351	334	12 hr 3.93 min	-6
29	SUMMER YEAR 1	358	348	12 hr 1.96 min	-8
30	WINTER YEAR 2	165	697	11 hr 57.21 min	-4
31	WINTER YEAR 2	178	720	12 hr 0.84 min	-1
32	WINTER YEAR 2	179	722	12 hr 1.12 min	1
33	SPRING YEAR 2	181	724	12 hr 1.68 min	1
34	SPRING YEAR 2	183	728	12 hr 2.24 min	1
35	SPRING YEAR 2	186	733	12 hr 3.09 min	-2
36	SPRING YEAR 2	188	737	12 hr 3.65 min	3
37	SPRING YEAR 2	193	745	12 hr 5.05 min	3
38	SPRING YEAR 2	199	755	12 hr 6.71 min	2
39	SPRING YEAR 2	215	781	12 hr 10.96 min	3
40	SPRING YEAR 2	218	785	12 hr 11.72 min	-5
41	SPRING YEAR 2	218	786	12 hr 11.6 min	-4
42	SPRING YEAR 2	238	816	12 hr 16.14 min	-7
43	SUMMER YEAR 2	274	871	12 hr 19.28 min	-7
44	SUMMER YEAR 2	281	883	12 hr 18.94 min	-6
45	SUMMER YEAR 2	304	919	12 hr 15.96 min	-3
46	SUMMER YEAR 2	307	924	12 hr 15.16 min	-1
47	SUMMER YEAR 2	317	941	12 hr 12.96 min	0
48	SUMMER YEAR 2	317	942	12 hr 12.8 min	-1
49	SUMMER YEAR 2	327	958	12 hr 10.45 min	-9
50	SUMMER YEAR 2	332	967	12 hr 11.72 min	-2
51	SUMMER YEAR 2	340	982	12 hr 9.14 min	-4
52	SUMMER YEAR 2	341	984	12 hr 6.71 min	-6
53	SUMMER YEAR 2	342	986	12 hr 6.43 min	-1
54	SUMMER YEAR 2	343	987	12 hr 6.15 min	-7
55	SUMMER YEAR 2	344	989	12 hr 5.88 min	-10
56	SUMMER YEAR 2	347	995	12 hr 5.05min	-4
57	SUMMER YEAR 2	348	997	12 hr 4.77 min	-13
58	SUMMER YEAR 2	350	1000	12 hr 4.20 min	-12
59	SUMMER YEAR 2	351	1003	12 hr 3.93 min	-10
60	SUMMER YEAR 2	352	1004	12 hr 3.65 min	-9
61	SUMMER YEAR 2	355	1010	12 hr 2.84 min	-11
62	AUTUMN YEAR 2	3	1025	12 hr 0.56 min	-14
63	AUTUMN YEAR 2	7	1032	11 hr 59.44 min	-16
64	AUTUMN YEAR 2	74	1177	11 hr 44.58 min	-27
65	AUTUMN YEAR 2	74	1178	11 hr 44.52 min	-23
66	WINTER YEAR 3	146	1329	11 hr 52.18 min	-15
67	SPRING YEAR 3	185	1401	11 hr 44.58 min	-4
68	SPRING YEAR 3	190	1409	12 hr 2.81 min	-9

As can be seen above, the shortest day with low of -74°C had a high of -15°C. This was on Sol 1,329 at Ls 146 in the winter of MSL Year 3. The length of daylight then was about 11 hours 52.18 minutes (the lowest amount of daylight at Gale Crater is about 11 hours 43.76 minutes for Ls 90 when winter begins).

The longest day with low of -74°C had a high of -7°C. This was on Sol 871 at Ls 274 in the early summer of MSL Year 2. The length of daylight then was about 12 hr 19.28 minutes (the largest amount of daylight at Gale Crater is just just a few seconds longer at about 12 hours 19.34 minutes for Ls 270 when summer begins). There were several winter sols in the first 1,417 Martian days of MSL operations where the REMS Team and JPL reported warmer highs than the -7°C seen in the summer for Sol 871. Specifically, they are summarized on Table 2 below:

TABLE 2 Summary of MSL length of winter daylight hours and high air temperatures for MSL sols in which the low air temperature was -74°C and in which the high air temperature was equal to or warmer than the -7°C seen in the summer on MSL Sol 871 at Ls 274.
	B	C	D	E	F
DATA LINE WITH -74°C LOW	SEASON	LS	MSL SOL NUMBER	~HOURS AND MINUTES OF DAYLIGHT	HIGH TEMP °C
3	WINTER YEAR 1	161	21	11 hr 56.12 min	-3
4	WINTER YEAR 1	162	22	11 hr 56.40 min	-6
5	WINTER YEAR 1	166	30	11 hr 57.50 min	-3
11	WINTER YEAR 1	179	52	12 hr 1.12 min	-7
30	WINTER YEAR 2	165	697	11 hr 57.21 min	-4
31	WINTER YEAR 2	178	720	12 hr 0.84 min	-1
32	WINTER YEAR 2	179	722	12 hr 1.12 min	1