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Mars: Various spacecraft have observed Mars from orbit from 1971 to the present, many able to provide a long baseline of climate observations. In 2001 Malin et al. (2001) found that images of Mars' south polar cap taken one Martian year apart showed small retreats (of about 1-3 meters) in the cover of frozen carbon dioxide. This frozen CO2 sublimes directly from ice to gas in Mars' thin atmosphere. Observations over the next few Martian years' (one Martian year = 1.88 Earth years) showed continuing retreat, resulting in expanding pits in the residual polar cap (Benson and James, 2005; Thomas et al., 2005; James et al., 2007). This retreat has now been observed over four Martian years.
Several global warming believers have been quick to state that this is a regional climate change. However, Fenton et al. (2006) and Fenton et al. (2007) have identified trends in changes in the reflectivity of the surface dust on Mars from 1976 to 2000. From observed albedo changes they have used models to estimate a global annual air temperature increase of 0.65° C. The direct cause of this predicted temperature change is a change in the distribution of darker dust on Mars' surface, and the resulting warming could be a factor in the retreat of Mars' south polar ice. One proposed root cause of this climate change could be slight shifts in Mars' axial tilt or orbital eccentricity: such changes have also been proposed as key drivers in changing Earth's climate between glacial and interglacial conditions (i.e. starting and ending ice ages). These shifts involve very long timescales on Mars as well as Earth, making this an inadequate explanation for the changes observed currently. Internal variations in Mars' climate, as opposed to influences from solar output changes, are likely at work, but this issue is unresolved.
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