page_title: Climate of Mars
section_title: Atmospheric properties and processes
hierarchical_section_title: Climate of Mars / Atmospheric properties and processes
caption_attribution_description: English: 11.02.2012 The Five Most Abundant Gases in the Martian Atmosphere http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16460 This graph shows the percentage abundance of five gases in the atmosphere of Mars, as measured by the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer instrument of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on NASA's Mars rover in October 2012. The season was early spring in Mars' southern hemisphere, and the location was inside Mars' Gale Crater, at 4.49 degrees south latitude, 137.42 degrees east longitude. The graph uses as logarithmic scale for volume percentage of the atmosphere so that these gases with very different concentrations can all be plotted. By far the predominant gas is carbon dioxide, making up 95.9 percent of the atmosphere's volume. The next four most abundant gases are argon, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon monoxide. Researchers will use SAM repeatedly throughout Curiosity's mission on Mars to check for seasonal changes in atmospheric composition. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, SAM/GSFC
context_page_description: The climate of Mars has been a topic of scientific curiosity for centuries, in part because it is the only terrestrial planet whose surface can be directly observed in detail from the Earth with help from a telescope.
  Although Mars is smaller than the Earth, 11% of Earth's mass, and 50% farther from the Sun than the Earth, its climate has important similarities, such as the presence of polar ice caps, seasonal changes and observable weather patterns. It has attracted sustained study from planetologists and climatologists. While Mars' climate has similarities to Earth's, including periodic ice ages, there are also important differences, such as much lower thermal inertia. Mars' atmosphere has a scale height of approximately 11 km, 60% greater than that on Earth. The climate is of considerable relevance to the question of whether life is or was present on the planet.
caption: Planet Mars – most abundant gases – (Curiosity rover, Sample Analysis at Mars device, October 2012).
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