Hi, Tom.

Would anything useful be gained by putting some observer satellites into Martian geosynchronous (aresynchronous??) orbit with enough resolution to at least observe large-scale phenomena in real time?

* It's worked very well for GOES and I'm glad it's there! Great pdf links at that site.

[The Imager
The Imager is a multispectral, earth-scanning instrument capable of sweeping simultaneously one visible and four infrared channels in a north to south swath across an east to west path, and providing full earth imagery, sector imagery containing edges of earth’s disk, and area scans of local regions. Besides simultaneous imaging, it features higher infrared spatial (4 kilometers, 2.5 statute miles) and spectral resolution in the surface and cloud detection channels, and increased sensitivity, all of which enhance quantitative estimates of surface temperature and low-level moisture and monitoring of convective intensity. Imaging over five channels significantly improves cloud and water vapor measurements and produces visual and infrared images of the earth’s surface, oceans, cloud cover and severe storm developments. Cloud imagery is available to users in mapped format (available for each channel) as well as the familiar GOES projector sector. Two composite images, visible infrared and infrared water vapor are also produced.]

Would a similar craft sent to Mars be better off kept encased or attached to a rocket stage for the 6-9 month trip so that it(craft) can then be deployed into it's geo/transfer orbit stage? I'm just thinking in terms of a fast way to get there and to alleviate unneeded mass that may interrupt communications and craft maneuverability for the actual mission. (Am I thinking too much?)

They would operate in the same way as the GOES weather sats in Earth orbit. What altitude would a synchronous orbit around Mars be?

Earth GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). An orbit at 22,300 miles that is synchronized with Earth's rotation. If a satellite in GEO is not at 0° inclination, its ground path describes a figure eight as it travels around Earth.
http://www.afa.org/magazine/space/spaceterms.html

Martian GMO: A mars geosynchronous orbit would be one in which a spacecraft would orbit Mars once every 24.6 hours, the length of a martian day. This would be
an orbit that has an orbital radius of about 20,600 km as measured from the center of the planet. That is, it would be about 17,200 km above the martian
surface.
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ask/orbit/

Marcia