Snow on the Hallelujah Mountains?

[Ashen Key]

This struck me last night, while I was watching a David Attenborough documentry, and now it's really bothering me.

High altitude generally equals snow (not matter the latitude), and no one can argue that the Hallelujah Mountains are pretty high up. But it's warm enough that Trudy runs around in a singlet half the time, and Jake tends to wear just those t-shirts. Not, say, jackets, or huddling around a heater.

Anyone have idea why the mountains aren't covered in snow, even during the night?

[Isard]

Pandora's a tropical environment. Warm year round.

[Ashen Key]

....yes, but that doesn't answer the question. After all, you can ski in Hawaii. It's a question of altitude, not weather.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

....yes, but that doesn't answer the question. After all, you can ski in Hawaii. It's a question of altitude, not weather.

You are missing something.

Pandora is not a planet, it is a moon.

The fact that it is orbiting something that is also orbiting changes how often and how close the sun is in the sky. That, plus the high amount of Carbon Dioxide (the main reason why humans cannot breathe the air) creates what is essentially the ultimate greenhouse and squelches any chances for ice crystals to form in the atmosphere.

It is probably cooler up there, but if large reptiles (and therefore presumably cold blooded animals) like Ikran and Toruk are living up there in high numbers, it's gotta be pretty warm most of the time.

Okay, time for the plant person to step in.
IT's been established that the area where the movie takes place is the equivalent of a tropical jungle. What we saw in other areas (the plains and the coast) the plant diversity is very wide.
The plants on top of the floating mountains is different than the plants growing on the planet itself. There are likely micro climates on each individual floating rock as well and due to their floating and rotating, the climate changes constantly as well.
The flora at Site 26 seems to bear out a different weather pattern than on the ground. Long grass, different plant varieties that seem to indicate possible colder weather tolerance.
So, we'll have to see what Cameron plans for us in the next movie and perhaps in the novel as well.

Wow, so I'm not the only person that noticed this. w00t.

Yeah, the plants on top of the mountains were much different than the ones on the ground. There were very few trees, the dominant plants were either short, stubby shrubs or grasses, and a few of those cycad-like plants.

This happens because the atmosphere is thinner, and thus more damaging ultraviolet rays make it to the plants, which either stunts their growth or limits plant communities to only a few very hardy species. Wind and bad weather are also more severe at higher altitudes, so the plants are likely also subjected to more mechanical stress than the ones that grow in the jungle.

There is actually a place in venezuela that mimics this setting called the Tepui; mountains that are very high and very steep and are topped with plateaus that house small communities of life found nowhere else on Earth. There are few trees, and most plants are small and shrub like (depending on available moisture).

But no, I hihgly doubt the existence of much ice of any sort on Pandora.

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Zai-en-ken

It is probably cooler up there, but if large reptiles (and therefore presumably cold blooded animals) like Ikran and Toruk are living up there in high numbers, it's gotta be pretty warm most of the time.

I guess they would be endothermic because they aren't reptiles.




As for ice, there IS ice visible from space at the very north pole, but it's a small area.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Human No More

I guess they would be endothermic because they aren't reptiles.




As for ice, there IS ice visible from space at the very north pole, but it's a small area.

WTF?

If they aren't reptiles, then what the hell are they?

They have what look like scales (can be seen when Jake dismounts the Toruk @ the ToS), they have teeth, they lack beaks, they don't have hollow bones, they don't have feathers.........if anything they are Pandoran equivalents of Earth's ancient Pterosaurs.

[Isard]

Pandora's a tiny hothouse, the warm temperatures most likely extend up to that altitude.

[Patrice Maire]

Who's to say there isn't a latitude/altitude elsewhere on the planet that has snow? Maybe the plains get snow in the winter?
Also, perhaps we were only there during the 'summer' months? The movie only takes place in a three month period. Who knows what it's like the rest of the year?

[rasomaso]

It's possible that the mountains aren't that high above sea level, they could be just 2 km above the sea level, which would mean there is no snow when combined with the tropical weather. The Hawaii volcano is something like 5 km right?

[Helicoradian]

I'm pretty sure that Pandora's polar caps are covered by snow and ice. As for it snowing up in the Hallelujah Mountains, it might be possible but I don't really know.

[Davy Jones]

For all we know, unobtanium might be warm, melting the snow

[Loverofnature]

yeah hence the waterfalls that come out of nowhere

[Human No More]

Ah, no, it's a superconductor

I'd guess not a high enough altitude combined with temperature on Pandora. Perhaps it snows on the very highest, just not any seen. The ones shown couldn't be more than a few kilometres at the very most.

[X.,.Pandora.,.X]

... +1 vote for sequal to take place during the winter.... the bioluminesence would look sweet under 2-3 inches of snow...

[Migg3006]

Snow on hi mountain is not a question of altitude, it's more a question of the thickness of the atmosphere. More the atmosphere is thick more it will need to be hi to have snow.
But it also a question of greenhouse effect, more the atmosphere are able to keep the heat more hi you will need to go to have snow.