[X] My Assistant

[RNeuhaus]

Most martian visibles clouds only hovers at high altitude. These are found around Olympus, Tharsis mountains, Alba Patera, above the Margaritifer Terra, Meridian Planum and most of South polar region: Planum Australe.

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20843

Rodolfo

[MarsIsImportant]

The article is simply not well written. Because of that, it is easily misinterpreted. That misinterpretation is not necessarily the readers fault. That goes back to the fact the article is not up to standard. That is a fair criticism. I did not want to defend the article at all because of that fact. Yet the criticisms here went far beyond that fair one.

You quote them saying CO2 clouds detected from above and IDENTIFIED. That's the problem. The article itself says that these type of clouds have been seen before. People have been giving all sorts of examples of various clouds being identified from above. So you say they lied.

But in context, it is clear to me that the writer meant 'confirmed'. There is a big but subtle difference. They were able to confirm it because of the new infrared imaging spectrometer and the large size of the particles within the cloud. They could separate the CO2 atmosphere from the CO2 ice in the clouds. Before, we couldn't be sure of that distinction; now we can. That means confirmation.

I don't remember them actually using that word 'confirmation' but that is what they meant. So the article is not well written. I wasn't trying to defend the article in of itself. It was clearly inaccurate in a number of ways. I was simply showing how criticism here has taken it a little too far in characterizing them (as in the ESA) as liars...or they are grossly ignorant. I don't think that is the case. The writer missed some of the subtleties in English and it came across as a pure 'puff piece'. That is still not excusable for a writer, but it is a far cry from calling the whole organization liars.

Edit: Another unfair criticism is that people have been giving examples where the clouds were thought to be water based clouds. That's not what the article was about. The article is talking about CO2 ice cloud detection at the equator (when they meant confirmation). It has been known for a while that CO2 ice clouds must form at NIGHT at the poles. This article points out a CO2 ice cloud at the equator during the day. Yet, people here keep giving examples of detections that claim water ice clouds, not CO2. That's not a fair criticism against the article. Yet, the article opened itself up to such criticism because it mentions previous water cloud detections near the beginning. That could also be easily misinterpreted itself. Many people have claimed in the past that these clouds were CO2, not water. This science confirms the clouds are CO2. ...I can relate to the confusion the article caused.

[djellison]

The article itself says that these type of clouds have been seen before.

It also says that an astronaut would have been surprised to see them. It infers that clouds were not known to exist.

Doug