New Project Invites You To Do Martian Cloud Science with NASA

Like staring at the clouds? Love the planet Mars? How about staring at the clouds…on Mars?  Now you can join Cloudspotting on Mars: Shapes, a new NASA citizen science project, and help identify beautiful cloud formations on the Red Planet. 

Mars has kinds of clouds you may not have seen before, such as “twilight clouds,” “vortex clouds,” and “disk clouds”.  You’ll view spectacular images of Mars’s atmosphere from space to look for these clouds and check that what you’re seeing isn’t a volcano or patch of ice on the surface.

By classifying cloud types, you’ll help researchers better understand the availability of water vapor, wind patterns, and the factors influencing Mars’s daily weather patterns. This research is critical for expanding our knowledge of present-day atmospheric conditions on Mars, which is essential for understanding the historical climate of Mars and its evolution.

You’ll be examining data from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft. MAVEN entered orbit around Mars a decade ago, on Sept. 21, 2014. It has produced a wealth of data about how Mars’ atmosphere responds to the Sun and solar wind, and how these interactions can explain the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. MAVEN is still taking new data–so there will be plenty to work on!

Cloudspotting on Mars: Shapes is open to everyone with an internet-enabled computer, with no sign-up deadline. You’ll learn all you need to know in a brief online tutorial. Participation does not require citizenship in any particular country. Hungry for more Martian cloud science? Try the original Cloudspotting on Mars project, too!.