Anyone can help NASA identify clouds on Mars
NASA is looking for clouds on Mars… in order to understand why the planet’s atmosphere is 100 times less dense than that of the Earth. This task is proving difficult given the huge volume of atmospheric data on Mars, to the point that the American space agency has just called on volunteers… who can be (practically) Mr. and Mrs. Everybody! Those interested in this cloud hunt can register on an online platform called Zooniverse, a platform which itself allows access to the database. Cloudspotting on Mars.
Help @nasa scientists find clouds on Mars! We’re asking citizen scientists to help us identify clouds in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data. This may aid researchers in figuring out why the Red Planet’s atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s. Join here: https://t.co/Bk96EMIm1H pic.twitter.com/E5EnDRc1R6
—NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 29, 2022
The meticulous clearing of the data of Cloudspotting on Mars should make it possible to better understand the changes in cloud structure over the Martian seasons as well as the composition of the average atmosphere of Mars between 50 and 80 km altitude. The work to be done is colossal: the data of Cloudspotting on Mars represent more than 16 years of observation. Note that NASA scientists have ruled out the solution of a targeted data recognition algorithm, the latter proving to be less effective than the human eye. This is quite reassuring…
