Samaneh Ansari, Edwin S. Kite, Ramses Ramirez, Liam J. Steele, Hooman Mohseni
{"title":"Feasibility of keeping Mars warm with nanoparticles","authors":"Samaneh Ansari, Edwin S. Kite, Ramses Ramirez, Liam J. Steele, Hooman Mohseni","doi":"arxiv-2409.03925","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"One-third of Mars' surface has shallow-buried H$_2$O, but it is currently too\ncold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a\nlarge mass of ingredients that are rare on Mars' surface. However, we show here\nthat artificial aerosols made from materials that are readily available at\nMars-for example, conductive nanorods that are ~9 $\\mu$m long-could warm Mars\n>5 $\\times$ 10$^3$ times more effectively than the best gases. Such\nnanoparticles forward-scatter sunlight and efficiently block upwelling thermal\ninfrared. Similar to the natural dust of Mars, they are swept high into Mars'\natmosphere, allowing delivery from the near-surface. For a particle lifetime of\n10 years, two climate models indicate that sustained release at 30 liters/sec\nwould globally warm Mars by $\\gtrsim$30 K and start to melt the ice. Therefore,\nif nanoparticles can be made at scale on (or delivered to) Mars, then the\nbarrier to warming of Mars appears to not be as high as previously thought.","PeriodicalId":501270,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - Geophysics","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - PHYS - Geophysics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2409.03925","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
One-third of Mars' surface has shallow-buried H$_2$O, but it is currently too
cold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a
large mass of ingredients that are rare on Mars' surface. However, we show here
that artificial aerosols made from materials that are readily available at
Mars-for example, conductive nanorods that are ~9 $\mu$m long-could warm Mars
>5 $\times$ 10$^3$ times more effectively than the best gases. Such
nanoparticles forward-scatter sunlight and efficiently block upwelling thermal
infrared. Similar to the natural dust of Mars, they are swept high into Mars'
atmosphere, allowing delivery from the near-surface. For a particle lifetime of
10 years, two climate models indicate that sustained release at 30 liters/sec
would globally warm Mars by $\gtrsim$30 K and start to melt the ice. Therefore,
if nanoparticles can be made at scale on (or delivered to) Mars, then the
barrier to warming of Mars appears to not be as high as previously thought.