It has been snowing on Mars and it took a Canadian scientist using Canadian technology to recognize it. Seems that Canadians know snow when they see it.

“Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars,” said Jim Whiteway of Toronto’s York University and the lead weather scientist for NASA’s Mars Lander project. 

“It’s a major breakthrough,” said Dr. Alian Berinstain, a Director at the Canadian Space Agency. “It means we have more information on the water cycle on Mars.”

Scientists have always known that the Red planet has seasons. It swings from being warm and dusty to being cloudy and cold. 

 And now we know that it snows, which tells us that water is still part of the planet’s ecology.

Mars has very little atmosphere, less than 1 percent of Earth’s, which makes it difficult to determine how water moves around on Mars. The planet has northern and southern poles, similar to Earth’s, where ice appears and disappears.

The new Canadian technology is abroad the Mars Lander Phoenix. The Robot Lander has a weather station that uses a Canadian technology called “Lidar” which is a laser radar system. The lasers scan the Martian skies but up until now it has only spotted clouds, fog and blowing sand.

Phoenix landed when the weather was relatively warm and the air was absorbing water. Now as the temperatures get colder the absorbed water is condensing and producing frost, ground fog and more dense clouds.

The Robot Lander has transmitted photographs of fluffy clouds drifting across the morning horizon.

The Lidar images show that inside the clouds there are heavy ice crystals.

“That is snow, falling from the clouds, and we’re going to be watching very closely over the next month for evidence that the snow is actually landing on the surface,” said Jim Whiteway.

About a month is all the time that Phoenix has left to transmit signals from the Mars surface. The Lander runs on solar power and soon the Mars sun will set for a three month period, leaving the Robot Lander to freeze in the dark. The Lander probably won’t survive the cold.

Peter Smith, the Chief scientist for the Phoenix project is pleased with the discoveries.

“The atmosphere is a transport mechanism for water, ice and vapor,” said Smith. Solid ice is often found just 5 centimeters below the surface of the planets northern plains. Scrape away some dirt, “You would find it’s like a skating rink. It’s a very ice rich environment.”