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On laboratory simulation and the evaporation rate of water on Mars
Author(s) -
Sears Derek W. G.,
Moore Shauntae R.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl023443
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , evaporation , buoyancy , water vapor , liquid water , atmosphere (unit) , diffusion , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , materials science , thermodynamics , mechanics , astrobiology , physics , meteorology
In order to better understand the stability of water on Mars, and factors likely to affect that stability, we have measured the evaporation rate of water in a CO 2 atmosphere at 7 mbar and ∼0°C in a large environmental chamber that minimizes fluctuation in conditions. The average evaporation rate we measured was 1.01 ± 0.19 mm/h. This includes correction for water vapor build‐up in the chamber, but not the effect of Mars' lower gravity. When corrections for this are applied, our predicted evaporation rate for water on Mars at 0°C and 7 mbar is 0.73 ± 0.14 mm/h. This is in very good agreement with the value calculated by assuming that evaporation depends on diffusion and buoyancy. The consistency of these results suggests that – at least for these conditions – our approaches to the calculations and the laboratory simulations are reasonable.