Identification

Title

Thermal escape of carbon from the early Martian atmosphere

Abstract

Observations suggest that Mars was wet and warm during the late Noachian, which probably requires a dense CO₂ atmosphere. But would a dense CO₂ early Martian atmosphere have been stable under the strong EUV flux from the young Sun? Here we show that thermal escape of carbon was so efficient during the early Noachian, 4.1 billion years ago (Ga), that a CO₂-dominated Martian atmosphere could not have been maintained, and Mars should have begun its life cold. By the mid to late Noachian, however, the solar EUV flux would have become weak enough to allow a dense CO₂ atmosphere to accumulate. Hence, a sustainable warm and wet period only appeared several hundred million years (Myrs) after Mars formed.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7g44rbz

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2009-01-31T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact