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Sol (borrowed from the Latin word for sun) is a solar day on Mars; that is, a Mars-day. A sol is the apparent interval between two successive returns of the Sun to the same meridian (sundial time) as seen by an observer on Mars. It is one of several units for timekeeping on Mars. A sol is slightly longer than an Earth day.
Numerically, the Mars Sol Date is defined as MSD = (Julian Date using International Atomic Time − 2451549.5 + k)/1.02749125 + 44796.0, where k is a small correction of approximately 1 ⁄ 4000 day (22 s) due to uncertainty in the exact geographical position of the prime meridian at Airy-0 crater. [citation needed]
The basic time periods from which the calendar is constructed are the Martian solar day (sometimes called a sol) and the Martian vernal equinox year.The sol is 39 minutes 35.244 seconds longer than the Terrestrial solar day, and the Martian vernal equinox year is 668.5907 sols in length (which corresponds to 686.9711 days on Earth).
A single official calendar for Mars does not yet exist, so a numbered Mars day, known as a "Sol", is used in the calculation. NASA or another authoritative agency determines the Sol number for the new event on Mars by counting Sols from the beginning of the mission. The Mars clock time of the event is determined by geographic location and sun ...
It is based on the product of the count of Earth days past and the ratio of the length of Earth's solar day length (86400 seconds) with a Mars solar day (88775.24409 seconds), rounded to the nearest sol. That ratio comes from technical notes on time keeping on Mars from NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center. [1] To use, type:
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the Sol system: 668 sols per Mars Year. This system consists of uniform time units. However, Mars Year sols may be confused with rover mission times that are also expressed in sols. Unlike in the day vs. sol distinction, "Mars Year" has no unique Latin term.