Phoenix Sol 1 weather report: Sunny, clear skies, cold (Forwarded)

Media Relations
York University
Toronto, Canada

Media contact:
Melissa Hughes, 416 736 2100 x22097

May 27, 2008

Weather on Mars: Sunny, clear skies, cold

TORONTO -- The Canadian Mars-Phoenix team, led by York University, issued
its first Mars weather report today, made public during a NASA media
briefing at 2 pm EDT.

Phoenix's first day on Mars was sunny and clear, with temperatures ranging
between -80 C in the early morning, and -30 C in the afternoon. Wind speed
was 20 kilometres/hour, out of the northeast. Pressure was 8.5 millibars
-- less than one percent of the sea-level pressure on Earth.

To view the Sol 1 Mars-Phoenix weather report,
http://www.yorku.ca/mediar/special/sol1_weather.jpg

The Canadian team is receiving daily weather reports from Phoenix's
Canadian-built meteorological station for the duration of the 90-day
mission.

Phoenix, a joint project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and the
University of Arizona, landed on Mars on May 25, 2008, at 7:38 pm EDT. The
weather station was activated within the first hour after landing.

"Measurements are now being recorded continuously, and will expand to
include humidity and visibility," says York University professor Jim
Whiteway, principal investigator for the Canadian team.

More instruments will be activated over the coming days, including the
Canadian team's lidar (laser-based-light-detecting-and-ranging) system.
The lidar will shoot pulses of laser light into the Martian sky, precisely
measuring components of the atmosphere such as dust, ground fog, and
clouds, from the surface up to a range of 20 km. This is the first time
such data has been collected.

Phoenix is the first Scout mission to study the Martian ice cap. Alongside
gathering of atmospheric data, the lander will attempt to dig to an
ice-rich layer believed to lie very close to the planet's surface,
allowing scientists to gather evidence about climate cycles and
investigate whether the environment there has been favorable for microbial
life.

The meteorological component of the mission is a collaboration led by York
University, in partnership with the University of Alberta, Dalhousie
University, the University of Aarhus (Denmark), the Finnish Meteorological
Institute, MDA Space Missions, and Optech Inc., with $37 million in
funding from the Canadian Space Agency.

Phoenix media briefings are streamed live on the NASA TV website, at:
http://www.nasa.tv

.

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