Re:Flawed climate data
by thaumaturgy on Wednesday December 02, 2009 @09:40PM
(#973557)
The primary evidence for Martian warming is a comparison of two photographs, one taken in 1977 and one taken in 1999, in which the planet appears brighter in 1977 than in 1999.
However, the cause of the albedo change was attributed to dust storms, not to a change in climate per se. Further, if there had been climactic change, there were only two datapoints to go on and a line drawn between them -- not exactly the kind of data that anyone on HN should choose to draw conclusions from.
More recent photographs suggest that there may be climactic cycles in effect, however the data gathered so far is utterly insufficient to even begin to guess at the systems and behaviors involved in that other planet.
One thing we do know is that Martian atmosphere is dramatically different from Earth's, and it doesn't make any more sense to draw conclusions about the one based on the other than it does to, say, conclude that Windows is subject to the same security vulnerabilities that Macs are.
However, the cause of the albedo change was attributed to dust storms, not to a change in climate per se. Further, if there had been climactic change, there were only two datapoints to go on and a line drawn between them -- not exactly the kind of data that anyone on HN should choose to draw conclusions from.
More recent photographs suggest that there may be climactic cycles in effect, however the data gathered so far is utterly insufficient to even begin to guess at the systems and behaviors involved in that other planet.
One thing we do know is that Martian atmosphere is dramatically different from Earth's, and it doesn't make any more sense to draw conclusions about the one based on the other than it does to, say, conclude that Windows is subject to the same security vulnerabilities that Macs are.