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This is the reply received from a University of Arizona researcher, when asked the question "how much water vapor might be found on ground level at night?"
I get about 1.3e11 cm-3 for a nighttime temp of -120 C and a pressure of 2.7e-4 Pascals (the vapor pressure of water at that temperature).
For higher up in the atmosphere, this article appears in searches, from Sept 2011:
ESA orbiter discovers water supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=49342
And also interesting was the "Mars Water Project" spanning 1988 - 1997, http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~sprague/planatmos/mars.html
But the most interesting was http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~nowack/geos1 … ture14.htm which notes
Since the atmosphere of Mars is so cold and thin, it can hold very little water vapor. In this sense, it is dry. However, it holds about the maximum it can at its pressure and temperature. So, “relative” humidity on Mars is very high. It is thus common to see water vapor fogs to form at low elevations at night.
The lecture continues and covers the subject well, including a review of the general behavior of water at these atmospheric pressures and temperatures.
Given all these caveats, nonetheless it would be interesting to know what a "low elevation" is, and typical pressures and temperatures one would encounter at night.
What does the literature say about water vapor on Mars?
An ESA page noted possible water vapor 25km above the planet's surface.
Is there any water vapor in the air at night?
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