Planetary atmospheres Archives

The dark blue orb of Neptune is viewed by Voyager 2 at an upward angle from the south pole. A dark navy storm spot, the Great Dark Spot, is just to the right of the center of the planet, and white high-altitude clouds are scattered around the planet.

Diagnosing Neptune’s Chilly Summer

by Kimberly M. S. Cartier 28 April 202228 April 2022

A pandemic project analyzing a trove of infrared images revealed an unexplained phenomenon taking place in Neptune’s atmosphere.

An aerial image of the windswept surface of Mars. The ground is rusty red with blacker sediment curling across the image in the form of dunes. A dusting of white snow accentuates the ridges of large and small scale dunes.

News

Mars’s Dust Cycle Controls Its Polar Vortex and Snowfall

by Kimberly M. S. Cartier 1 April 20221 April 2022

On Earth, the water cycle is a dominant climate force. On Mars, it’s the dust.

Editors' Highlights

Young Ponds on Mars

by Francis Nimmo 25 February 202215 March 2022

A detailed study of evaporite (chloride) deposits on Mars shows that small bodies of surface water persisted until about 2.5 Ga, more recently than previously thought.

Editors' Highlights

Order in Turbulence

by B. Stevens 21 September 202128 September 2021

Extracting order from turbulence is difficult, even under the most idealized conditions. A new scaling theory quantifies how eddies influence temperature gradients in geophysical turbulence.

An artist’s rendering of exoplanet GJ 1132 b

News

The Possible Evolution of an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere

by Stacy Kish 23 June 202126 April 2022

Scientific sleuths explore data gathered trillions of kilometers away and put forth different, and often conflicting, ideas to reconstruct the gaseous envelope on a distant rocky exoplanet, GJ 1132 b.

Illustration of a blue planet with a network of data connections and computer code in its atmosphere

News

Machine Learning Can Help Decode Alien Skies—Up to a Point

by Kimberly M. S. Cartier 25 June 202016 June 2022

Astronomers are testing the tools that might help them keep up with the upcoming storm of exoplanet atmosphere data.

Editors' Highlights

Earth-like Oscillations Detected in Saturn’s Stratosphere

by S. Stanley 21 February 201829 March 2022

By comparing Cassini observations spanning ten years, Saturn’s equatorial oscillation is shown to have similarities to Earth’s Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and Semi-Annual Oscillation.

Researchers try out a mathematical model assessing Martian solar irradiance.

Research Spotlights

Spacecraft Returns Its First Data on Martian Solar Irradiance

by Sarah Stanley 10 May 2017

Scientists demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of the mathematical model used to calculate solar irradiance using measurements from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN).