Radiative Effects of Dust on the Climate of Early Mars
Date:
Undergraduate Thesis, Peking University and Harvard University,
This project investigated how the optical properties of airborne and surface dust influence the climate of early Mars. The results indicate that basaltic dust representative of reducing conditions produces net cooling over physically plausible optical depths, and that dust radiative effects alone are insufficient to resolve the faint young Sun paradox.
The project also quantified uncertainties in surface albedo arising from particle size, mineral composition, and particle-mixing geometry.