Interesting news there : http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20070612.html

and as usual ...
"How long will it take for us to see other sorts of things related to temperature swings? We don't know," says Matijevic. "We know it matters over time, but we don't know how many of these swings we'll see before we lose a component.

and as usual too
"Meanwhile, we're applying for a fifth extended mission for both rovers."

Hmm...highs in the 90s, lows around a hundred below...sounds like springtime on the Edwards AFB flightline!

The temperature graphs are interesting things... Does anyone know what the temperature profile should look like as you go from the surface down a few meters? Or similarly, what seasonal temperatures in one of the apparently common Martian caves should look like?

Or a Spring day in Bozeman, MT.

Bozeman?!? Butte's the closest thing to Mars on Earth (click the record high & low checkboxes to add them to the plot...there have been over 150 deg F temperature swings over the course of a year), plus it's covered with mine dumps...

As I expected - the labelling of the graph as 'air temperature' is missleading. It is just a FHAZ temp - not adjusted with any thermal model. It's fairly well isolated from the WEB, but operation of the camera itself would result in higher temps.

Doug

Sure, but Bozeman has Mars-like temperature swings over the course of the same day