Rain, snow... Weather?

[Eywayä Kelku]

Kaltxì!

Right, I know this might sound like a stupid question, but what about weather on Pandora? As in does it rain and snow and hail and stuff? Because I never saw any kind of weather like that in the film...

[Hawnuyu atxen]

The only one in the film (except of the nice shiny weather, maybe with some clouds) is when Jake gets his "clean kill": it rains.
I think i already read about something that snow should exist on Pandora too...

[Ateyo te Kellett]

yeah, there were a discussion about the "polar caps". some thought it was ice and some thought it was just clouds. look at the scene where you see the ISV moving into orbit above Pandora. see what you think

[Ftiafpi]

The only one in the film (except of the nice shiny weather, maybe with some clouds) is when Jake gets his "clean kill": it rains.
I think i already read about something that snow should exist on Pandora too...

It also rains during the "shack" night scene.

[Greg]

The ice caps are visible from orbit, the mining operation is in "tropical" rainforest, and the horse clan lives on a savanna.  Other than that I have not been able to find anything on the oceans, their currents, continental size, distribution and topography to even start to construct a climate model.

[Ateyo te Kellett]

yet again the discussion begins. me and my friends belive they are just clouds

[kewnya txamew'itan]

The ice caps are visible from orbit, the mining operation is in "tropical" rainforest, and the horse clan lives on a savanna.  Other than that I have not been able to find anything on the oceans, their currents, continental size, distribution and topography to even start to construct a climate model.

ASG says land coverage is roughly the same as earth (proportionally) but with more smaller continents. Also, we know that Pandora is smaller of course.

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

ice caps exsists

[Swoka Ikran]

Seems like its been answered, but we know it rains, and the ice caps can be seen.

Good question for you: Is the water potable for tawtute? Or is it contaminated with eywa-knows-what bacteria/other micro-organisms? I didn't notice any time where a tawtute drank naturally occurring water in the movie, although I do recall a Na'vi doing so (might have been Neytiri, can't check until next Monday when I get my DVD).

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Neytiri shows Jake to drink from a leaf and I think he does too.

I see no reason why it wouldn't be potable even if it might need to be treated a bit first, there're unlikely to be many bacteria in the rain water and, apart from a bit of CO2 there're no gases that could cause problems and the CO2's just going to make it a bit sour (it dissolves to make carbonic acid).

Also, if you do build a climate model, make sure to take into account the "pervasive volcanism" which makes it sound as if there's more than on earth.

[Swoka Ikran]

I see no reason why it wouldn't be potable even if it might need to be treated a bit first, there're unlikely to be many bacteria in the rain water and, apart from a bit of CO2 there're no gases that could cause problems and the CO2's just going to make it a bit sour (it dissolves to make carbonic acid).

Completely forgot about the CO2 issue. Yeah, that's going to make it taste like crap, although a human could still drink it. If they can't stand the taste, treat and neutralize the water.

As for why I was thinking rain would have bacteria in it...I was thinking about all the stuff that could have been on the leaf they drank from. A Na'vi probably has some immunity against microbes in the surrounding wilderness. Humans could have likely drank it, but some form of treatment wouldn't be a bad idea as a precaution. The last thing you'd want is to be sick with an unknown Pandoran illness while 6 years from home. Whether they'd have resources on Pandora to develop a treatment, I wouldn't be surprised.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

The water from the leaf would probably not be nice at all, but the rainwater collected properly and possibly neutralised should be ok.

[Muzer]

Maybe the leaf produces a base that neutralises the acid in the water? That would be awesome

[Swoka Ikran]

Maybe the leaf produces a base that neutralises the acid in the water? That would be awesome

Don't know, but that would be interesting...maybe it would have antibacterial properties as well?

If it doesn't, I guess the Na'vi and avatar bodies are just equipped to deal with the high acidity and contamination.

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

Maybe the leaf produces a base that neutralises the acid in the water? That would be awesome

Don't know, but that would be interesting...maybe it would have antibacterial properties as well?

If it doesn't, I guess the Na'vi and avatar bodies are just equipped to deal with the high acidity and contamination.

honestlly didn't seeing the people wearing masks when they arrived tell you that eveything (including food and water) was dangerous for humans?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Maybe the leaf produces a base that neutralises the acid in the water? That would be awesome

Don't know, but that would be interesting...maybe it would have antibacterial properties as well?

If it doesn't, I guess the Na'vi and avatar bodies are just equipped to deal with the high acidity and contamination.

honestlly didn't seeing the people wearing masks when they arrived tell you that eveything (including food and water) was dangerous for humans?

The dangerousness is primarily high very high levels of CO2 so the high acidity and contamination is a seperate problem.

On an unrelated note, wouldn't it be ironic if one of the sawtute who stayed had a cold and ended up wiping out the na'vi.

[Ftiafpi]

Maybe the leaf produces a base that neutralises the acid in the water? That would be awesome

Don't know, but that would be interesting...maybe it would have antibacterial properties as well?

If it doesn't, I guess the Na'vi and avatar bodies are just equipped to deal with the high acidity and contamination.

honestlly didn't seeing the people wearing masks when they arrived tell you that eveything (including food and water) was dangerous for humans?

The dangerousness is primarily high very high levels of CO2 so the high acidity and contamination is a seperate problem.

On an unrelated note, wouldn't it be ironic if one of the sawtute who stayed had a cold and ended up wiping out the na'vi.

I would imagine everything gets super sterilized on the trip out and the trip back, both to prevent people from getting sick and to prevent bringing diseases to Pandora. Plus, pretty much all the air they're breathing in/out gets super filtered through masks and the facility filters so I imagine the chances of spreading disease is remote. Then again, it only takes one illness and then the Na'vi are f***.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

I'm not convinced the RDA would bother ensuring nobody on the trip out was infected, they don't care about the indigenous fauna (and flora) enough and the disruption would be minimal.

On the other hand I can see there being very careful procedures to stop any disease coming in.

As for the rebreathers, I hadn't thought of that, they'd stop almost anything getting to the na'vi, on the other hand, when Jake has his consciousness shifted his mask gets taken off, what if he was the one with the cold. 

[Greg]

The ASG indicates a range of weather conditions similar to earth. Rain, fog, hail, sleet,  snow, and tornadoes can be expected. The two differences between earth and pandora are the  basic chemical makeup of the atmosphere and the volume of material the volcanos put into the atmosphere.
Unfortunately ther is insufficent data on pandor's topography for any climate models.

As for the air an water quality we do know:

The Flaska reclinata is reported to remove toxic gases from the air.

The Marace aerii collects water from fog and dew.  The liquid from it is used for its healing properties.

The Na'vi are shown drinking rain water that is naturally collected in some leaves. Indicating that the rain water is potable for the native population.

[Roiki]

No one even knows how our deseases would react to other life-forms. Most likely any human diesease doesn't pose much of a risk to native populations since it's not adapted to that environment or their physiology. If one manages to enter their bodies, it likely triggers a normal immune response(in us, fever) but it wouldn't present symptoms that humans have, since they're physiologies are so vastly different the desease just doesn't really know what to do.

Parasites might be a different story but i can't really say.