A&M professor says studying weather on Mars integral to future manned missions

What's the weather like on Mars?

Sometimes cloudy with rust-colored skies, Texas A&M associate professor Mark Lemmon says. And the dust -- oh, the dust.

Lemmon has spent the last decade working with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover team to measure dust levels in the Martian atmosphere and explain its effects on weather patterns. The data was compiled into a summary article published in April's edition of the space-based research journal Icarus.

"The basic idea is that dust is important to Martian climate and weather. It is hard to measure accurately from space, but easier from the rover," Lemmon wrote in an email.

More at http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/a-m-professor-says-studying-weather-on-mars-integral-to/article_a9ff9b39-5cf5-5311-88e9-743f8a981c23.html .

[font color=7E3517]The sunsets have a blue tint due to the way light is scattered.[/font]