IF mars is warming, does it have the same cause as earth's warming?

Question

Even if we assume:

- that observed ice cap shrinkage is enough data to indicate a planet's global warming

- that ice cap shrinkage on one pole of a planet (a regional indicator) is sufficient to indicate global warming

- 3 years of data is enough to indicate a long term climate trend

What would the forcing mechanism, and what (if anything) would that indicate about earth's current warming?

Answer 1

The only way Mars and Earth would have the same forcing is if

1) It were increased solar output, or

2) Their orbital variations happened to match.

#2 is exceedingly unlikely, and doesn't make sense anyway since we're in a stable portion of the Earth's orbital cycles.  We know the Milankovitch cycles are not causing the current warming, so this can be ruled out.

We also know that #1 is incorrect, because satellites have been monitoring the Sun's output directly for 30 years and have determined that it has remained essentially unchanged.

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-...

So it's clear that if Mars is warming on a global scale, it's for reasons entirely different from the warming on Earth.  The most likely explanation is dust storms darkening its surface, changing the planet's albedo.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Answer 2

Not necsacarly but some of the reasearch I have been doing suggest that  many of the causes of the warming on Mars are the same as Earth's warming.

Answer 3

Obviously water would be a major component,so you can't really use the same regulatory processes as a comparison.Mars is also uninhabited, so no man made influence,no vegetation,different atmosphere,different orbital patterns/distance,different mass,and the lack of a (biosphere) as we know it.

Guess off the top... I'd say the only correlations would be solar and orbital variations given the time of yearly/seasonal cycles.

Edit: I will agree that comparisons are unlikely,but Abdussamatov does hit on a key point. Low level CO2 has been noted as a common place event thru out history.As seen in the Andie's and other mountain systems.They are actually called dead zones and occur only during cool hours, mostly mornings.Believe it or not the wildlife has leaned to adapt to this process.The upper levels have a volatile mix and is hard to determine exact concentrations,this can be noted in the limited capabilities of weather balloons.

Good question...@least I had to think

Edit:a link/other then off the top...

Answer 4

There's already evidence to support the effects of solar radiation as a key culprit of global warming. So I think it would be safe to assume that Mars would be affected by this, too. Although it would be difficult to say to what extent this would go, as there has been little (if any) research in this venue.

..and no. Three years of data is nowhere near enough to indicate a long-term climate trend. If you want to talk anything larger than a US state, anyway. If you're talking about an entire planet, you'd better have decades (at least) of data before you go saying anything definitive about global climate.

Answer 5

Mars isn't the only planet that's warming. Also Triton, Jupiter and Saturn to name a few.

Answer 6

Not at all. The mere fact that both planets are warming isn't enough evidence to establish a single cause for both. And in the absence of a physical mechanism linking both changes, there really isn't any good reason to abandon the well established physics behind current AGW theory. That the warming on Mars has been fully explained by dust storms cements this fact.

Of course, since the sun is the only link between these two planets, it's exciting to speculate that a change in solar output must be the cause of both planets' warming. However, there hasn't been any trend in solar activity sufficient to have caused the bulk of the 20th century warming here on Earth. And any change in solar output should have an effect on the entire solar system, not just Earth and Mars. As it happens, the rest of the solar system isn't showing signs of warming at all; some planets have even shown signs of cooling.

Finally, it's actually very difficult to know whether Mars is warming at all. It's difficult enough measuring the temperature of our own planet, and we've been working on that for centuries. We have no surface monitoring stations on Mars, and have no way of obtaining temperature proxies (ice cores, tree ring data, etc.). In fact, the evidence of warming on Mars mostly comes from a series of photographs showing what may be a shrinking of Mars's southern ice cap.

So it doesn't seem like the Earth/Mars warming line of argument holds much water.

Answer 7

Algore's brownshirts have no interest in controlling mars.....yet.

Answer 8

wow, good question.  you even stumped the first dude into speaking riddles instead of answering questions.  do you have any links talking about the warming of Mars?  i've heard nothing of it and would be interested in seeing what you're talking about.

so Mars can all of a sudden get dust storms (which are caused by heat, just like hurricanes) for no reason but when we get hurricanes it has to be due to global warming?!?!?!?!!!!!

and the analogies everyone is giving are lame.  there's only 9 planets in our solar system, but there's billions of people and stars.  so the chances of people and stars acting the same... yes very low, but when there's only 9 planets... not so much.

Answer 9

Does Mars have an atmosphere that in any way resembles ours?   Oh ok

OBVIOUSLY  NO

Answer 10

No, we just have more hot air here on Earth than Mars.

Answer 11

That's like saying everyone will die from the same cause. Or, the sun will die the same way as another star 1000 times its mass. It would be ignorant to think similar occurrences on 2 different objects has to happen in the same manner.

Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable based on the information we have? No.