In the news release it states:

Seasonal Trend in Water Vapor Seen from Orbit
"The seasonal trend in the amount of water vapor in Mars' atmosphere,
as observed by thermal emission spectrometer on NASA's Mars Global
Surveyor orbiter, varies by latitude. This plot starts near the
beginning of fall in the southern hemisphere for the year before the
Mars Exploration Rover mission began and ends on August 30, 2004"

When Mars reaches perihelion will be in late southern Spring. This will be in July, 2005. It would be expected that the melting of the southern ice cap in late Spring to early Summer and subsequent exposure of water ice would result in a great increase in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. However, the data shown in the graph accompanying the news release only goes back to southern Fall, 2003 so they may not be including the high water content in late Spring and early Summer.
The Hubble images show the clouds over Meridiani in late southern Spring. This is when I'm suggesting clouds will again appear over Meridiani in 2005, not the March 2005 mentioned in the news release.


Bob Clark