The Climate History of Mars: A Geological Perspective
Mars today is an extremely cold and arid environment, but what has been the history of the climate of Mars? New spacecraft data and a host of new developments in exploration, modeling, and an understanding of the spin-axis/orbital properties of bodies in the solar system, have paved the way for us to reach back into earlier Mars history and gain new insight into past Mars climate. We will first document these new insights and then apply them to assess the climate history back in time, through the recent Amazonian Period, the Hesperian Period and finally to the much earlier Noachian Period, for which there is evidence for extensive fluvial activity, abundant lakes and possibly oceans. We will conclude with identification of some of the fundamental outstanding questions and how future Mars exploration can address these questions.
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