Rates of aerosol–dust interactions and dispersal clumping on Mars

Quantify the timescales for natural Martian dust to aggregate engineered aerosols and for engineered aerosols to clump upon dispersal, in order to evaluate the viability and cost of aerosol-based warming driven by effective atmospheric lifetimes.

Background

The effectiveness of aerosol warming hinges on aerosol lifetimes in Mars’ atmosphere. Rapid scavenging by dust or rapid clumping at release would drastically increase required production rates and costs, potentially making the approach impractical.

This uncertainty directly impacts the downselect of aerosol candidates and the design of atmospheric process experiments.

References

We currently do not know how quickly natural aerosols would sweep up engineered aerosols, nor how quickly engineered aerosols would clump at dispersal; if either is fast, aerosol-based warming could be prohibitively costly, favoring gas warming [11,65].

— A research roadmap for assessing the feasibility of warming Mars  (2604.02242 - Kite et al., 2 Apr 2026) in Section 5, Risks (4. Would adding energy to Mars give a warm, sunlit surface?)