392 
vicinity of only 20 km above the surface if an adiabatic 
lapse rate is established. This suggests that these clouds 
and their movements could be detected if one could 
COSMICAL METEOROLOGY 
amount present is usually too small for spectroscopic 
detection [1]. The presence of clouds and polar caps 
points to the presence of water, and the similarity of 
TasiLe I. VALUES OF METEOROLOGICAL PARAMETERS FOR CERTAIN PLANETS 
Mean Coriolis Cnn 
Planet fistnce | Myer | ameter | Meanmdus | Glomator | Albedo | gaviy 
(® = 1) (® = 1) (sec-! X 104) to orbit (® = 1) 
N/Giitt Jaeeng coors sora moiabcola oS nee ao eG 0.72 0.6152 <0.07 0.97 ? 0.59 0.86 
Earth 1.00 1.0000 1.46 1.00 23° 27’ 0.39 1.00 
IMIG TSH tees ret AGO met ieernaree evacinees 1.52 1.8808 1.42 0.53 25° 12’ 0.15 0.37 
CIDIMUGIE. acedasuasssdanvoenconseceso 5.20 11.862 3.5 11.0 3° 07’ 0.44 2.64 
SEiabidiig bp ps ero nia bi vita coo da coo uC o.4 9.54 29.457 3.3 9.0 26° 45’ 0.42 1.17 
(Wiranlsshevotbecstincriogt ican aero 19.19 84.013 3.3 4.0 98° 0.45 0.91 
INIGOUWEINGs g 6 aoeendoccHocoousnasoged 30.07 164.783 2.2 3.9 29° 0.52 1.12 
‘ Approximate Approximate 
ne -Mostimportant probable | Probablevalueof, | preauieat vinble” | temperate st 
order of abundance °C km”) (mb) in punllene 
VETS AA Aen hoe re eaten aerate es N2?, CO2 10.0* >160 50-100 
Bart hye nother ee eee) toler rer eee No, Oo, H20, A, CO2 9.8 1000 10 
NUE dota Rae ant ots REN ort A echt itis Oa emia ar N2?, A?, CO2, H20 3.7F 50-100 0 
QUpPlbe Pass ee ae sess Waele eruen eae H»2, He, CH, NH; 4.4 >50f —120 
Saturne <tees eiyacesrsen: cone atts Mase eee Ho, He, CH;, NH3 2.0f >50f —150 
Wiramusiisn tert eric seep ook teas eepters H», He, CH, 1.5f >170t 
INIGOMUME; Sroldaoanpaenueo sp asoEnousces H», He, CH, 1.9f >350t 
* For a pure CO» atmosphere; in a predominantly N2 atmosphere the value is 8.0. 
} For a predominantly N2 atmosphere. 
t+ Assuming a mixture of six molecules of Hz to one molecule of CH. In such a mixture the amount of He affects neither the 
adiabatic lapse rate nor the molecular weight. 
examine the planet’s image in the far infrared. The re- 
lationship between these clouds and the ultraviolet 
markings should also be investigated. 
Mars 
The planet Mars is the one which, in meteorological 
matters, most closely resembles Earth. The Martian 
day is almost the same length as ours, and the inclina- 
tion of the polar axis to the plane of rotation about the 
sun is approximately the same (thus his seasons are 
much like ours), but the year is almost two of Harth’s. 
Mars is distinguished from Venus and the major planets 
by the fact that his solid surface is usually clearly 
visible. Indeed, so little does the atmosphere interfere 
(except in blue light where a high haze layer is evident) 
that we suffer from a relative lack of data on such fac- 
tors as cloud motions, upon which to base a discussion 
of Martian meteorology. 
That Mars possesses an atmosphere has been known 
for many years, mainly because the polar caps, which 
wax and wane with the seasons, must have a vapor 
phase. Various optical scattering phenomena support 
this conclusion. Recently the first definitely identified 
constituent of the Martian atmosphere, carbon dioxide, 
was found by Kuiper [3,-p. 335]. The planet has about 
twice as much CO» per unit area as Harth. Water vapor 
has not been definitely identified, but this 1s because the 
the reflection spectrum of the caps to that of snow 
makes the conclusion inescapable. Little can be said 
about other constituents, except that considerable quan- 
tities of nitrogen are to be expected because of this 
element’s universal abundance, its resistance to chemi- 
cal combination with the planet’s crust, and the suffi- 
ciency of Martian gravity to prevent its escape. 
Radiometric measurements permit estimation of the 
surface temperature over areas as small as 200 miles 
in radius. This allows delineation of the general tem- 
perature field [2]. The analysis of an extensive sequence 
of measurements made during 1926 is presented in Fig. 
1. The salient features are a belt of high temperature 
at about lat. 20° in the summer hemisphere, markedly 
lower temperatures and larger gradients in the winter 
hemisphere, and an anomalously warm region near lat. 
30°S, long. 350°. The first two features are in qualitative 
agreement with the situation on Earth, while the last 
feature, which is probably real, is associated with an 
anomaly in the circulation. 
The vertical shear of the zonal winds computed from 
these data and the thermal wind equation are given in 
Table II. The rates of increase of west wind with eleva- 
tion are somewhat smaller than corresponding values on 
Earth. Since the wind velocity next to the ground must 
be quite small due to friction, the magnitude of the 
wind U at some elevation z must be roughly a On 
2 
