Proposed approaches to tracking date and time on the planet Mars
(In red) Martian season lengths and time as compared to seasons on Earth (in blue), with marks for the vernal equinox, perihelion, and aphelion
Though no standard exists, numerous calendars and other timekeeping approaches have been proposed for the planet Mars. The most commonly seen in the scientific literature denotes the time of year as the number of degrees on its orbit from the northward equinox, and increasingly there is use of numbering the Martian years beginning at the equinox that occurred April 11, 1955.[1][2]
Mars has an axial tilt and a rotation period similar to those of Earth. Thus, it experiences seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter much like Earth. Mars' orbital eccentricity is considerably larger, which causes its seasons to vary significantly in length. A sol, or Martian day, is not that different from an Earth day: less than an hour longer. However, a Mars year is almost twice as long as an Earth year.
^"Mars' Calendar". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
^Clancy, R. T.; Sandor, B. J.; Wolff, M. J.; Christensen, P. R.; Smith, M. D.; Pearl, J. C.; Conrath, B. J.; Wilson, R. J. (2000). "An intercomparison of ground-based millimeter, MGS TES, and Viking atmospheric temperature measurements: Seasonal and interannual variability of temperatures and dust loading in the global Mars atmosphere". Journal of Geophysical Research. 105 (E4): 9553–9571. Bibcode:2000JGR...105.9553C. doi:10.1029/1999JE001089.).
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