Cartographic visualization of the Mars terraforming process

Current atmospheric conditions on Mars make it impossible for life forms known on Earth to exist (Fogg, 1998).In the past, Mars had liquid water and a denser atmosphere.Scientific research indicates that by artificially enhancing the greenhouse effect, it is possible to change the climate of Mars so that it is similar to conditions on Earth (Sagan , 1973, Burns, 1973, Graham, 2004, Beech, 2009).The terraforming process requires that the average temperature on the Red Planet increase by about 60 degrees (Lovelock, 1984).It is also necessary to thicken the atmosphere of Mars (McKay, 1991, Zubrin, 1997, Marinova, 2005, McKay, 2011).Research conducted using energy balance simulations at high spatial and temporal resolution (Olszewski et al., 2025) indicates that for a CO2 atmosphere with a pressure of 10 kPa, surface temperatures suitable for plant growth occur when the artificial, greenhouse thermal-infrared grey opacity (tau) is ~0.39 optical depths.The region that would then be the first to reach the desired climatic parameters is the Hellas Basin crater (Fig. 1a).The results of the Mars terraforming process for various parameters of the simulation model indicate that for an atmosphere composed of CO2 with a pressure of 50 kPa and a strong greenhouse effect (tau = 0.5), much of Mars would indeed become a "red planet" with a climate too hot for terrestrial life to exist there (Fig. 1b). Figure 1.Results of the Mars terraforming process for different parameters of the simulation model.