<P> Various schemes have been used or proposed for timekeeping on the planet Mars independently of Earth time and calendars . </P> <P> Mars has an axial tilt and a rotation period similar to those of Earth . Thus it experiences seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter much like Earth, and its day is about the same length . Its year is almost twice as long as Earth's, and its orbital eccentricity is considerably larger, which means among other things that the lengths of various Martian seasons differ considerably, and sundial time can diverge from clock time more than on Earth . </P> <P> The average length of a Martian sidereal day is 24 h 37 m 22.663 s (88,642.66300 seconds based on SI units), and the length of its solar day (often called a sol) is 24 h 39 m 35.244147 s (88,775.244147 seconds). The corresponding values for Earth are 23 h 56 m 4.0916 s and 24h 00 m 00.002 s, respectively . This yields a conversion factor of 1.02749125170 days / sol . Thus Mars' solar day is only about 2.7% longer than Earth's . </P> <P> A convention used by spacecraft lander projects to date has been to keep track of local solar time using a 24 - hour "Mars clock" on which the hours, minutes and seconds are 2.7% longer than their standard (Earth) durations . For the Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Phoenix, and Mars Science Laboratory missions, the operations team has worked on "Mars time", with a work schedule synchronized to the local time at the landing site on Mars, rather than the Earth day . This results in the crew's schedule sliding approximately 40 minutes later in Earth time each day . Wristwatches calibrated in Martian time, rather than Earth time, were used by many of the MER team members . </P>

Why is a day called a sol on mars
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