Title:Exploring the Seasonal Processes of the Martian South Pole with 150,000 Earlings

Speaker:Dr. Meg Schwamb (Gemini Observatory)

Abstract:
Planet Four (http://www.planetfour.org) and Planet Four: Terrains (http://terrains.planetfour.org) are citizen science projects mining Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mages to explore how the south pole of Mars is sculpted by the never-ending cycle of freezing and thawing of exposed carbon dioxide ice. In the summer, carbon dioxide geysers loft dust and dirt through cracks in the thawing carbon dioxide ice sheet to the surface where winds blow the material into the hundreds of thousands of dark fans observed from orbit. Planet Four enlists over 136,000 volunteers to map the sizes, shapes, and orientations of these fans in HiRISE images. Planet Four is creating an unprecedented wind map of the south pole of Mars in order to probe how the Martian climate changes over time and is impacted year to year by dust storms and and other global-scale events. Planet Four: Terrains, aims to study the distribution of the geyser process across the south pole and identify new targets of interest for HiRISE. Over 12,000 people have helped identify the channels and pits (dubbed araneiforms) carved during the geyser formation process. In this talk, I'll give an overview of Planet Four and Planet Four: Terrains and present the latest results from these projects.