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Evaporation of ice in planetary atmospheres - Ice-covered rivers on MarsThe existence of ice covered rivers on Mars is considered. It is noted that the evaporation rate of water ice on the surface of a planet with an atmosphere involves an equilibrium between solar heating and radiative and evaporative cooling of the ice layer. It is determined that even with a mean Martian insolation rate above the ice of approximately 10 to the -8th g per sq cm/sec, a flowing channel of liquid water will be covered by ice which evaporates sufficiently slowly that the water below can flow for hundreds of kilometers even with modest discharges. Evaporation rates are calculated for a range of frictional velocities, atmospheric pressures, and insolations and it is suggested that some subset of observed Martian channels may have formed as ice-choked rivers. Finally, the exobiological implications of ice covered channels or lakes on Mars are discussed.
Document ID
19790068799
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Wallace, D.
(Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Sagan, C.
(Cornell University Ithaca, N.Y., United States)
Date Acquired
August 9, 2013
Publication Date
September 1, 1979
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
79A52812
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NGR-33-010-220
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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