It's the first snowfall – from Mars that is. "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Prof. Jim Whiteway of York University, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.
"The measurement of clouds and precipitation on Mars was done with a lidar. This is technology that was developed in Canada over the last 40 years," Whiteway, a professor of engineering and atmospheric science, said in a phone interview from Washington D.C. last night.
"There's never been an instrument like the lidar. So this is the first time we've ever been able to see this," said Whiteway, one of the Phoenix project team members making the announcement at NASA headquarters yesterday.
"It's a major breakthrough," Dr. Alain Berinstain, director of planetary exploration and space astronomy at the Canadian Space Agency, said from Ottawa last night. "It means we have more information on the water cycle on Mars."
"We have demonstrated that we deserve to be right there at the forefront of scientific discoveries in the solar system," Berinstain said.
" Dr. Whiteway and his team were invited by the U.S. team to participate in this mission because they're the best in the world ... at these specialized measurements in the atmosphere," Berinstain said.
Scientists discovered the Martian snow over the past month, said Whiteway.
Whiteway said
the lidar emits "pulses of laser light" into the atmosphere. They scatter and "we can see the outline of a cloud or the internal structure of a cloud as it drifts past."
But scientists don't actually see snow land on the ground. It falls on the atmosphere and then evaporates into the dry air, Whiteway explained.
"It's part of the overall of the picture. Life requires water. So it helps us understand the current state of water on Mars and how it would have evolved over millions of years."
He said, "Before the mission started people would ask me if we were going to see snow on Mars and I'd be kind of cagey and say if it does snow we'll see it. And what I showed them today is what it looked like."