QUOTE (Julius @ Jul 18 2010, 01:16 PM)
Its a great pleasure to have RLORENZ s thoughts on this topic!So here is my next question for you:what is expected to happen in the equatorial latitudes with changing seasons...i know that most of equatorial flats are covered with dunes and thus seem to be mostly dry...but we've seen signs of flooding eg huygens landing area any chance we could see signs of fluvial activity in the lower latitudes??
I'd guess that to a first order, nothing much happens at the equator, for the simple reason that the diurnally-averaged
sunlight input changes little over the course of the year (I'd need to check but it may change more ~20% due to
the eccentricity of Saturns orbit than it does due to the solar declination). I guess broad-brush the same is true
on Earth and Mars (and is in stark contrast to the dramatic changes between winter and summer in the polar
regions)
That said, the wind direction changes (apparently) around equinox, giving rise to the eastwards-pointing dunes
which paradoxically seemed at odds with the generally westwards flow.
My suspicion is that the fluvial landforms are scars of much longer-term variations in weather, not a seasonally-driven
thing.