Does this study help to shed light on the cause of Martian warming?
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v1/n11/abs/ngeo332.html
Of course, as many here on Y!A have pointed out, the warming on Mars is not a convincing argument against human induced warming here on Earth. Martian warming was mostly caused by changes in albedo and dust circulation. This study provides another possible driver.
"This does not shed light on the cause of warming. It describes much more vigorous redistribution of heat energy than expected. What drives the air currents is heat energy from the sun, same as on Earth."
A stronger than expected weather system does not shed light on a possible cause of warming at the Martian South pole?
"With recent cooling (Gore's hockey-stick graph is broken!) we have to wonder if the expected downturn has begun."
This is pure nonsense. The recent "cooling" requires serious manipulation of the data, and even if it didn't, it is nothing more than small short term dip in temperatures. Hardly suggestive of an oncoming glaciation.
Of course I realize that not all have subscriptions to Nature, and so are unable to access the full paper.
antarcticice wrote
"Sun has not shown an marked increase in output since satellite observation began in the late 70s."
For the Earth, I believe this argument to be overly simplistic--not taking into account the time it takes the oceans to reach equilibrium with a new level of forcing. That is why I believe the Sun may have had a larger role in recent warming than currently assigned (though the forcing from CO2 is substantially larger). On Mars, the time it takes to reach equilibrium is considerably smaller than on Earth, and the solar argument falls apart.
"'The recent cooling requires' only that you walk outside."
Ah, yes. Anecdotal short term evidence. A warming trend does not mean a linear increase.