Weather and Storms on Pandora

The most notable difference between the atmosphere on Earth and that on Pandora is the amount of carbon dioxide. Only .035% of Earth’s atmosphere is CO2, compared to the 18% on Pandora. The increased amount of CO2, a greenhouse gas, causes the overall temperature on Pandora to be warmer than that on Earth. Higher temperatures allows for more humid air on the surface of Pandora, creating larger cloud formations and heavier rainfall. Additionally, the land to ocean ratio is roughly the same on Pandora as it is on Earth. However, the immense stress on Pandora’s crust causes land masses to change and break apart much more quickly. The largest contiguous continent on Pandora is slightly smaller than Australia. This mixed with the strong Coriolis Effect mixed with the warm ocean and moist air leads to frequent hurricanes, which can occur as often as every other day during the warm season on the moon. The Na’vi call the large coastal hurricanes arip’ora, or “moving lake.” 

A surface map of Pandora. Notice the small, broken continents surrounded by vast amounts of ocean.

 Almost all of the air masses on Pandora would be classified on Earth as maritime, with most therein being tropical. There are very few polar and arctic air masses on Pandora. When these cold polar air masses do form and force warmer fronts aloft, the resulting storms can be gigantic by Earth standards. During thunderstorms, or rawm, in addition to lightning, there is a radioactive type of lightning unique to Pandora, called atanzaw, or “forked lighting.” This refers to lightning which is ionized and radioactive, making it a radiation contamination hazard when it makes ground contact. Though more extreme than lightning on Earth, this type of radioactive lightning is rare, and is caused by especially unstable and ionized air masses.

The characteristic humid, misty weather which covers most of Pandora.