README.md

This folder contains all of the data used in The Pudding essay Greetings from Mars published in February 2018.

Below you'll find metadata for each file.

mars-weather.csv

• What is this?: Data representing the weather conditions on Mars from Sol 1 (August 7, 2012 on Earth) to Sol 1895 (February 27, 2018 on Earth).
• Source(s) & Methodology: This data was measured and transmitted via the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) on-board the Curiosity Rover. The data was made publicly available by NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and the Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). The Centro de Astrobiología offers a widget and a disclaimer regarding the data collected by Curiosity here. You can also find more in-depth weather reports from the Centro de Astrobiología team here.
• Data Disclaimer: The Centro de Astrobiología includes the following disclaimer for these data:

The information contained in this file is provided by Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB) and is intended for outreach purposes only. Any other use is discouraged. CAB will take no responsibility for any result or publication made base on the content of this file. To access REMS scientific data, visit PDS. The environmental magnitudes given in this file are obtained from the values read by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) on board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover on Mars. This file provides the environmental magnitudes at REMS location, so MSL rover influences those magnitudes (rover position, rover temperature, rover orientation, rover shade, dust depositions on the rover, etc.) REMS does not take measurements continuously and it takes measurements at different times from one day to another. This fact has influence on the variation of the values given in this file from one day to another . For different reasons (instrument maintenance, instrument calibration, instrument degradation, etc.), some or all of the magnitudes in this file may not be available.

• Last Modified: March 2, 2018 (a daily-updated version in JSON-format can be found here).
• Contact Information: Amber Thomas
• Spatial Applicability: Gale Crater, Mars (just south of Mars' equator). More information on Curiosity's location here.
• Temporal Applicability: Sol 1 (August 7, 2012 on Earth) to Sol 1895 (February 27, 2018 on Earth)
• Observations (Rows): Each row represents the weather information collected at some point on a single sol (Martian day).
• Variables (Columns):

Header	Description	Data Type
id	The identification number of a single transmission	number
terrestrial_date	The date on Earth (formatted as month/day/year or m/dd/yy).	date
sol	The number of elapsed sols (Martian days) since Curiosity landed on Mars.	number
ls	The solar longitude or the Mars-Sun angle, measured from the Northern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox is when ls = 0. Since Curiosity is in the Southern Hemisphere, the following ls values are of importance: • ls = 0: autumnal equinox • ls = 90 : winter solstice • ls = 180 : spring equinox • ls = 270 : summer solstice	number
month	The Martian Month. Similarly to Earth, Martian time can be divided into 12 months. Helpful information can be found here.	text
min_temp	The minimum temperature (in °C) observed during a single Martian sol.	number
max_temp	The maximum temperature (in °C) observed during a single Martian sol.	number
pressure	The atmospheric pressure (Pa) in Curiosity's location on Mars.	number
wind_speed	The average wind speed (m/s) measured in a single sol. Note: Wind Speed data has not be transmitted to Earth since Sol 1485. Missing values are coded as NaN.	number
atmo_opacity	Description of the overall weather conditions on Mars for a given sol based on atmospheric opacity (e.g., Sunny).	text

earthWeather.json

Access the data here.

• What is this?: Data representing the weather conditions from 1,000 cities on Earth.
• Source(s) & Methodology: This data is Powered by Dark Sky, meaning that it uses the Dark Sky weather API to query the weather conditions in 1,000 cities daily.
• Last Modified: Daily.
• Contact Information: Amber Thomas
• Spatial Applicability: 1,000 cities around the world (at a minimum, the capital city of every country worldwide and the capital city of every US state).
• Temporal Applicability: Due to timezones on Earth, 3 different calendar days are existing simultaneously at some place on the planet. To account for this, the data is updated at UTC Midnight and records 3 days worth of data. Days in the future are forecasted weather conditions.
• Variables (Columns):

Header	Description	Data Type
latitude	The latitude of the city in decimal notation (e.g., 24.453884)	number
longitude	The longitude of the city in decimal notation (e.g., 54.3773438)	number
City	The name of the city.	text
Territory	The name of the country (for non-US cities) or state (for US-cities) for each city (e.g., for the city Seattle the Territory is Washington but for the city Paris the Territory is France.	text
dailySlice	Nested information including 3 days worth of weather conditions for the city. See the below table for descriptions of the variables inside.	nested data

Data inside the dailySlice column

Header	Description	Data Type
time	The date (formatted as year-month-day or YYYY-MM-DD)	date
summary	A text-description of the weather conditions for each day (e.g., Mostly cloudy throughout the day).	text
windSpeed	The average wind-speed (miles per hour) for a given day.	number
windGust	The maximum speed of wind gusts (miles per hour) for a given day.	number
pressure	The atmospheric pressure in a city (mbar)	number
min_tempF	The minimum temperature (°F) during a given day.	number
max_tempF	The maximum temperature (°F) during a given day.	number
min_tempC	The minimum temperature (°C) during a given day.	number
max_tempC	The maximum temperature (°C) during a given day.	number
windSpeedms	The average wind-speed (m/s) for a given day.	number

• Other Notes: Any use of these data needs to include a Powered by Dark Sky link as attribution.