Quote:
Originally Posted by lwcamp
I believe your conclusion is right, but question the means to get there. Weather is driven by insolation, so to zeroth order the average wind energy/area will be unchanged as the atmospheric pressure varies - thinner air will blow faster given the same amount of sunlight. Aerodynamic forces scale as energy/area. Mars gets less sunlight, so it will have less energetic winds, but the thin atmosphere will give as much of a push as a thicker atmosphere.
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I'm not sure that that necessarily follows. If I understand the physics right, wind energy is a product of pressure differences that result from differential heating of the atmosphere; that is, ultimately it's thermal energy. But if the atmosphere is less dense, you have less mass per unit surface area and therefore less capacity to take up heat. Wouldn't the equilibrium partition of energy have a smaller fraction of energy going into the atmosphere?
If your assumptions are correct, the winds would have to be much faster on Mars. That in itself would produce a less Earthlike landscape. "Then the chilly winds blew down/Across the desert" (as the Eagles sing in "The Last Resort").
Bill Stoddard