At the end of 2020, planetary scientist Marek Slipski found himself addicted to his computer, spending countless hours poring over image after image of the Martian atmosphere. The researcher was looking for clouds. He used to write an algorithm for the task, but it didn't work out so he looked at the data.
This became overwhelming. There were so many different cloud populations in the small amount of data Slipski was studying. He said after doing this for a week that he was going to take a bit more time. It would be great to have some assistance.
NASA gave space fans an opportunity to get involved in cutting-edge research by putting out a call for its Citizen Science Seed Funding program. Slipski and Kleinbhl were the first to start crafting a proposal. Slipski had been trying to do it alone, but perhaps the crowd could help. The data from the Mars Climate Sounder can be seen at altitudes between 50 and 80 kilometers away. The only planetary proposal was selected by Kleinbhl. The stars aligned, or the planets did.
The Cloudspotting on Mars project was launched on the Zooniverse platform in late June after weeks of trial and error. So farPukiWikiPukiWikiPukiWikiPukiWikirs have joined the effort, introducing themselves on the forums, and digging into the climate sounder's maps of the atmosphere at different heights and times of day. Participants only need a computer and internet access to contribute, since the data is viewed using a browser-embedded visualization tool.
The five researchers making up the Cloudspotting team hope that this work will shed light on the Red Planet's global weather patterns and why its atmosphere is so thin compared to our own. Kleinbhl says that the citizen science project will be more comprehensive than what has been written before.
He is interested in the processes that lead to the formation of clouds on Mars. He says the CO 2 clouds will tell us something about the structure and dynamics of the atmosphere and the conditions that lead to very low temperatures.
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