The effects of climate change on the Atacama Desert as a pertinent Mars analog model

Since 2003 the Atacama Desert in northern Chile is well-known as Mars analog model due to its extreme aridity, high UV radiation and highly saline soils containing highly oxidizing chemical species. Is in this frame that our team and others for the past decades have described a number of sites in the Atacama and their pertinence as Mars analog. However, since 2015 a number of climatic events never reported before have affected the Atacama, thought to be caused by climate change, with effects yet to be fully understood. Given that new instruments, techniques and rovers are, and will be tested in the Atacama before to be sent to Mars, is critical to be aware of these changes in order to properly plan new explorations and testing missions in this desert. Here we present some of the evidences of the changes brought by these environmental alterations, suggesting also the regions of the Atacama that still may be less or unaffected by them.