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NASA Mars Report: July 3, 2018 | JPL
News from NASA spacecraft at Mars: A dust storm continues to batter the Red Planet and Curiosity’s labs are back in action.
For more updates about the Martian dust storm visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/weather
For information on all our Mars missions, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Duration: 1 minute, 41 seconds
Release Date: July 3, 2018
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
+The University of Arizona
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Curiosity #Rover #Robotics #GaleCrater #MAVEN #MRO #MarsOdyssey #Opportunity #RedPlanet #Exploration #SolarSystem #JPL #Caltech #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video
News from NASA spacecraft at Mars: A dust storm continues to batter the Red Planet and Curiosity’s labs are back in action.
For more updates about the Martian dust storm visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/weather
For information on all our Mars missions, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Duration: 1 minute, 41 seconds
Release Date: July 3, 2018
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
+The University of Arizona
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Curiosity #Rover #Robotics #GaleCrater #MAVEN #MRO #MarsOdyssey #Opportunity #RedPlanet #Exploration #SolarSystem #JPL #Caltech #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video
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Mars Curiosity Rover Captures Thickening Haze | NASA
Martian Dust Storm Grows Global
Image: A self-portrait taken by NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater. | June 20, 2018: A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery that runs day and night.
The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a "planet-encircling" (or "global") dust event.
Though Curiosity is on the other side of Mars from Opportunity, dust has steadily increased over it, more than doubling over the weekend. The sunlight-blocking haze, called "tau," is now above 8.0 at Gale Crater—the highest tau the mission has ever recorded. Tau was last measured near 11 over Opportunity, thick enough that accurate measurements are no longer possible for Mars' oldest active rover.
For NASA's human scientists watching from the ground, Curiosity offers an unprecedented window to answer some questions. One of the biggest is: why do some Martian dust storms last for months and grow massive, while others stay small and last only a week?
"We don't have any good idea," says Scott D. Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, leading Curiosity's dust storm investigation.
Curiosity, he points out, plus a fleet of spacecraft in the orbit of Mars, will allow scientists for the first time to collect a wealth of dust information both from the surface and from space. The last storm of global magnitude that enveloped Mars was in 2007, five years before Curiosity landed there.
Daily photos captured by its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, show the sky getting hazier. This sun-obstructing wall of haze is about six to eight times thicker than normal for this time of season.
Curiosity's engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have studied the potential for the growing dust storm to affect the rover's instruments, and say it poses little risk. The largest impact is to the rover's cameras, which require extra exposure time due to the low lighting. The rover already routinely points its Mastcam down at the ground after each use to reduce the amount of dust blowing at its optics. JPL leads the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission.
Martian dust storms are common, especially during southern hemisphere spring and summer, when the planet is closest to the Sun. As the atmosphere warms, winds generated by larger contrasts in surface temperature at different locations mobilize dust particles the size of individual talcum powder grains. Carbon dioxide frozen on the winter polar cap evaporates, thickening the atmosphere and increasing the surface pressure. This enhances the process by helping suspend the dust particles in the air. In some cases, the dust clouds reach up to 40 miles (60 kilometers) or more in elevation.
Though they are common, Martian dust storms typically stay contained to a local area. By contrast, the current storm, if it were happening on Earth, is bigger than North America and Russia combined, says Guzewich.
The dust storm may seem exotic to some Earthlings, but it's not unique to Mars. Earth has dust storms, too, in desert regions such as NorthAfrica, the Middle East, and the southwest United States.
But conditions here prevent them from spreading globally, said Ralph A. Kahn, a Goddard senior research scientist who studies the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. These include the structure of our thicker atmosphere and stronger gravity that helps settle dust. Earth also has vegetation cover on land that binds the soil with its roots and helps block the wind and rain that wash the particles out of the atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Date: June 15, 2018
Release Date: June 20, 2018
+Curiosity
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #Curiosity #Rover #GaleCrater #Planet #Atmosphere #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Tau #Weather #Sol2082 #Mastcam #Exploration #RedPlanet #JPL #Pasadena #California #USA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
Martian Dust Storm Grows Global
Image: A self-portrait taken by NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater. | June 20, 2018: A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery that runs day and night.
The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a "planet-encircling" (or "global") dust event.
Though Curiosity is on the other side of Mars from Opportunity, dust has steadily increased over it, more than doubling over the weekend. The sunlight-blocking haze, called "tau," is now above 8.0 at Gale Crater—the highest tau the mission has ever recorded. Tau was last measured near 11 over Opportunity, thick enough that accurate measurements are no longer possible for Mars' oldest active rover.
For NASA's human scientists watching from the ground, Curiosity offers an unprecedented window to answer some questions. One of the biggest is: why do some Martian dust storms last for months and grow massive, while others stay small and last only a week?
"We don't have any good idea," says Scott D. Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, leading Curiosity's dust storm investigation.
Curiosity, he points out, plus a fleet of spacecraft in the orbit of Mars, will allow scientists for the first time to collect a wealth of dust information both from the surface and from space. The last storm of global magnitude that enveloped Mars was in 2007, five years before Curiosity landed there.
Daily photos captured by its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, show the sky getting hazier. This sun-obstructing wall of haze is about six to eight times thicker than normal for this time of season.
Curiosity's engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have studied the potential for the growing dust storm to affect the rover's instruments, and say it poses little risk. The largest impact is to the rover's cameras, which require extra exposure time due to the low lighting. The rover already routinely points its Mastcam down at the ground after each use to reduce the amount of dust blowing at its optics. JPL leads the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission.
Martian dust storms are common, especially during southern hemisphere spring and summer, when the planet is closest to the Sun. As the atmosphere warms, winds generated by larger contrasts in surface temperature at different locations mobilize dust particles the size of individual talcum powder grains. Carbon dioxide frozen on the winter polar cap evaporates, thickening the atmosphere and increasing the surface pressure. This enhances the process by helping suspend the dust particles in the air. In some cases, the dust clouds reach up to 40 miles (60 kilometers) or more in elevation.
Though they are common, Martian dust storms typically stay contained to a local area. By contrast, the current storm, if it were happening on Earth, is bigger than North America and Russia combined, says Guzewich.
The dust storm may seem exotic to some Earthlings, but it's not unique to Mars. Earth has dust storms, too, in desert regions such as NorthAfrica, the Middle East, and the southwest United States.
But conditions here prevent them from spreading globally, said Ralph A. Kahn, a Goddard senior research scientist who studies the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. These include the structure of our thicker atmosphere and stronger gravity that helps settle dust. Earth also has vegetation cover on land that binds the soil with its roots and helps block the wind and rain that wash the particles out of the atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Date: June 15, 2018
Release Date: June 20, 2018
+Curiosity
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #Curiosity #Rover #GaleCrater #Planet #Atmosphere #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Tau #Weather #Sol2082 #Mastcam #Exploration #RedPlanet #JPL #Pasadena #California #USA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
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Mars: Perfect Dust Storm for Science | NASA
This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA's rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
One of the thickest dust storms ever observed on Mars has been spreading for the past 3 weeks. The storm has caused NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations, but also offers a window for four other spacecraft to learn from the swirling dust.
NASA has three orbiters circling the Red Planet, each equipped with special cameras and other atmospheric instruments. Additionally, NASA's Curiosity rover has begun to see an increase in dust at its location in Gale Crater.
"This is the ideal storm for Mars science," said Jim Watzin, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "We have a historic number of spacecraft operating at the Red Planet. Each offers a unique look at how dust storms form and behave—knowledge that will be essential for future robotic and human missions."
Dusty With a Chance of Dust
Dust storms are a frequent feature on Mars, occurring in all seasons. Occasionally, they can balloon into regional storms in a matter of days, and sometimes even expand until they envelop the planet. These massive, planet-scaled storms are estimated to happen about once every three to four Mars years (six to eight Earth years); the last one was in 2007. They can last weeks, or even months at the longest.
The current storm above Opportunity, which is still growing, now blankets 14 million square miles (35 million square kilometers) of Martian surface -- about a quarter of the planet.
All dust events, regardless of size, help shape the Martian surface. Studying their physics is critical to understanding the ancient and modern Martian climate, said Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Each observation of these large storms brings us closer to being able to model these events -- and maybe, someday, being able to forecast them," Zurek said. "That would be like forecasting El Niño events on Earth, or the severity of upcoming hurricane seasons."
The thin atmosphere makes these storms vastly different from anything encountered on Earth: Despite the drama of "The Martian," the most powerful surface winds encountered on Mars would not topple a spacecraft, although they can sand-blast dust particles into the atmosphere.
Teamwork
Members of NASA's spacecraft "family" at Mars often help each other out. The agency's orbiters regularly relay data from NASA's rovers back to Earth. Orbiters and rovers also offer different perspectives on Martian terrain, allowing their science to complement one another.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a special role, acting as an early warning system for weather events such as the recent storm. It was the orbiter's wide-angle camera, called the Mars Color Imager, that offered the Opportunity team a heads up about the storm. This imager, built and operated by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, can create daily global maps of the planet that track how storms evolve, not unlike weather satellites that track hurricanes here on Earth.
NASA's two other orbiters—2001 Mars Odyssey and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution)—also provide unique science views. Odyssey has an infrared camera called THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) that can measure the amount of dust below it; MAVEN is designed to study the behavior of the upper atmosphere and the loss of gas to space.
Science happens on the ground as well, of course. Despite being on the other side of the planet from the evolving dust storm, NASA's Curiosity rover is beginning to detect increased "tau," the measure of the veil of dusty haze that blots out sunlight during a storm. As of Tuesday, June 12, the tau inside Gale Crater was varying between 1.0 and 2.0—figures that are average for dust season, though these levels usually show up later in the season.
Fortunately, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery. That means it doesn't face the same risk as the solar-powered Opportunity.
The Next Big One?
Since 2007, Mars scientists have been patiently waiting for a planet-encircling dust event -- less precisely called a "global" dust storm, though the storms never truly cover the entire globe of Mars. In 1971, one of these storms came close, leaving just the peaks of Mars' Tharsis volcanoes poking out above the dust.
The most recent dust storm is the earliest ever observed in the northern hemisphere of Mars, said Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, deputy principal investigator for the Mars Color Imager. But it could take several more days before anyone can tell whether the storm is encircling the planet.
If it does "go global," the storm will offer a brand new look at Martian weather. Four spacecraft stand ready to collect the science that shakes out.
Fine Print
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission; the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project; and the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey, MRO and MAVEN projects, having developed and built all three orbiters. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL for Odyssey and MRO, and jointly with the GSFC for MAVEN.
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Philip Christensen at Arizona State University.
For more updates about the Martian dust storm visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/weather
For more information about NASA's Mars missions, visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date: June 13, 2018
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #MAVEN #MRO #MarsOdyssey #Opportunity #Curiosity #Rover #GaleCrater #Planet #Atmosphere #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Tau #Weather #Exploration #RedPlanet #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Infographic
This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA's rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
One of the thickest dust storms ever observed on Mars has been spreading for the past 3 weeks. The storm has caused NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations, but also offers a window for four other spacecraft to learn from the swirling dust.
NASA has three orbiters circling the Red Planet, each equipped with special cameras and other atmospheric instruments. Additionally, NASA's Curiosity rover has begun to see an increase in dust at its location in Gale Crater.
"This is the ideal storm for Mars science," said Jim Watzin, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "We have a historic number of spacecraft operating at the Red Planet. Each offers a unique look at how dust storms form and behave—knowledge that will be essential for future robotic and human missions."
Dusty With a Chance of Dust
Dust storms are a frequent feature on Mars, occurring in all seasons. Occasionally, they can balloon into regional storms in a matter of days, and sometimes even expand until they envelop the planet. These massive, planet-scaled storms are estimated to happen about once every three to four Mars years (six to eight Earth years); the last one was in 2007. They can last weeks, or even months at the longest.
The current storm above Opportunity, which is still growing, now blankets 14 million square miles (35 million square kilometers) of Martian surface -- about a quarter of the planet.
All dust events, regardless of size, help shape the Martian surface. Studying their physics is critical to understanding the ancient and modern Martian climate, said Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"Each observation of these large storms brings us closer to being able to model these events -- and maybe, someday, being able to forecast them," Zurek said. "That would be like forecasting El Niño events on Earth, or the severity of upcoming hurricane seasons."
The thin atmosphere makes these storms vastly different from anything encountered on Earth: Despite the drama of "The Martian," the most powerful surface winds encountered on Mars would not topple a spacecraft, although they can sand-blast dust particles into the atmosphere.
Teamwork
Members of NASA's spacecraft "family" at Mars often help each other out. The agency's orbiters regularly relay data from NASA's rovers back to Earth. Orbiters and rovers also offer different perspectives on Martian terrain, allowing their science to complement one another.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a special role, acting as an early warning system for weather events such as the recent storm. It was the orbiter's wide-angle camera, called the Mars Color Imager, that offered the Opportunity team a heads up about the storm. This imager, built and operated by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, can create daily global maps of the planet that track how storms evolve, not unlike weather satellites that track hurricanes here on Earth.
NASA's two other orbiters—2001 Mars Odyssey and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution)—also provide unique science views. Odyssey has an infrared camera called THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) that can measure the amount of dust below it; MAVEN is designed to study the behavior of the upper atmosphere and the loss of gas to space.
Science happens on the ground as well, of course. Despite being on the other side of the planet from the evolving dust storm, NASA's Curiosity rover is beginning to detect increased "tau," the measure of the veil of dusty haze that blots out sunlight during a storm. As of Tuesday, June 12, the tau inside Gale Crater was varying between 1.0 and 2.0—figures that are average for dust season, though these levels usually show up later in the season.
Fortunately, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery. That means it doesn't face the same risk as the solar-powered Opportunity.
The Next Big One?
Since 2007, Mars scientists have been patiently waiting for a planet-encircling dust event -- less precisely called a "global" dust storm, though the storms never truly cover the entire globe of Mars. In 1971, one of these storms came close, leaving just the peaks of Mars' Tharsis volcanoes poking out above the dust.
The most recent dust storm is the earliest ever observed in the northern hemisphere of Mars, said Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, deputy principal investigator for the Mars Color Imager. But it could take several more days before anyone can tell whether the storm is encircling the planet.
If it does "go global," the storm will offer a brand new look at Martian weather. Four spacecraft stand ready to collect the science that shakes out.
Fine Print
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission; the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project; and the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey, MRO and MAVEN projects, having developed and built all three orbiters. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL for Odyssey and MRO, and jointly with the GSFC for MAVEN.
The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Philip Christensen at Arizona State University.
For more updates about the Martian dust storm visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/weather
For more information about NASA's Mars missions, visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date: June 13, 2018
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Solar System Exploration
#NASA #Mars #Astronomy #Science #Space #MAVEN #MRO #MarsOdyssey #Opportunity #Curiosity #Rover #GaleCrater #Planet #Atmosphere #Dust #DustStorm #Haze #Tau #Weather #Exploration #RedPlanet #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Infographic
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#UttarPradesh hit by another deadly #DustStorm that claimed 17 lives on Friday. #IMD warns of further dust storms & gusty winds in 13 districts of UP on Monday.
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#Space #duststorm #Mars #NASA Mars is our closest interstellar neighbor, and the red planet is currently in the middle of massive dust storms that have been circling it for the past couple of weeks. While these present an awesome opportunity for scientists to study… The post NASA Rovers Need to Adjust to Epic Dust Storm on Mars appeared first on Vision Times.
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#Todayinspace Learn about the #opportunity rover that's stuck in the middle of a severe global #mars #duststorm in our latest #podcast episode #applepodcasts #youtube #NASA
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Cases of allergic conjunctivitis on the rise in Delhi due to pollution.
#pollution #airpollution #disease #conjunctivitis #duststorm
#pollution #airpollution #disease #conjunctivitis #duststorm
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Mars vanishes beneath the dust blanket. Animations created from June 28th image and reference MGS map of the exact same longitude really shows what has happened on Mars in recent weeks.
Credit: Damian Peach.
https://twitter.com/peachastro/status/1013769542470914049
#Mars #Astronomy #DustStorm
Credit: Damian Peach.
https://twitter.com/peachastro/status/1013769542470914049
#Mars #Astronomy #DustStorm
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Dust Storm Scavengers.
Did you ever wonder what happened to the escape pod on Tatooine? The one with the droids in it? Well, wonder no more, it's not there anymore, the jawas got it.
The gigantic jawa sandcrawlers were slow. It was not a problem at all, usually there was no rush anywhere, but if there was a good reason to believe something worthwhile was in the desert, a sand skiff was used.
This time the jawas knew what they were after, C-3PO told them exactly what to look for, and where. The jawas got all the thrusters off the escape pod, it was a good catch. The moisture farmers use them to blow sand off their property. True story.
Little known fact: environmental protection programs were not very high on priority lists on Tatooine, but the jawas inadvertently did a great job keeping the deserts clean of wreckage. I think it was about time this got some exposure.
#lego #starwars #tatooine #jawa #escapepod #sandskiff #minifigure #toy #toyphotography #duststorm
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A Storm rolls in.
Mars dust Storm.
The high resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express captured this impressive upwelling front of dust clouds – visible in the right half of the frame – near the north polar ice cap of Mars in April this year.
It was one of several local small-scale dust storms that have been observed in recent months at the Red Planet, which is currently enduring a particularly intense dust storm season. A much larger storm emerged further southwest at the end of May and developed into a global, planet-encircling dust storm within several weeks.
The intensity of this major event means very little light from the Sun reaches the martian surface, a situation extreme enough that NASA’s 15-year old Opportunity rover has been unable to recharge its batteries and call home: it has been in hibernation mode since mid-June.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7155
Dust storms on Mars occur regularly during the southern summer season when the planet is closer to the Sun along its elliptical orbit. The enhanced solar illumination causes stronger temperature contrasts, with the resulting air movements more readily lifting dust particles from the surface – some of which measure up to about 0.01 mm in size.
Martian dust storms are very impressive, both visually like in this image and in terms of the intensity and duration of the rarer global events, but they are generally weaker compared to hurricanes on Earth. Mars has a much lower atmospheric pressure – less than one hundredth of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at the surface – and martian storms have less than half the typical wind speeds of hurricanes on Earth.
The current storm is being monitored by five ESA and NASA orbiters, while NASA’s Curiosity rover has been observing it from the ground thanks to its nuclear-powered battery. Understanding more about how global storms form and evolve will be critical for future solar-powered missions to Mars.
This colour image was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view of which is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the colour channels of the high-resolution stereo camera. The ground resolution is approximately 16 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 78°N/106°E.
Mars Express is also equipped with the Visual Monitoring Camera that captures daily images of the Red Planet.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
See more at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/A_storm_rolls_in
#Mars #ESA #Space #SpaceScience #RedPlanet #DustStorm #Rover #TheSun #SolarSystem #Planets #MartianDust #MartianStorms #WindSpeeds
Mars dust Storm.
The high resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express captured this impressive upwelling front of dust clouds – visible in the right half of the frame – near the north polar ice cap of Mars in April this year.
It was one of several local small-scale dust storms that have been observed in recent months at the Red Planet, which is currently enduring a particularly intense dust storm season. A much larger storm emerged further southwest at the end of May and developed into a global, planet-encircling dust storm within several weeks.
The intensity of this major event means very little light from the Sun reaches the martian surface, a situation extreme enough that NASA’s 15-year old Opportunity rover has been unable to recharge its batteries and call home: it has been in hibernation mode since mid-June.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7155
Dust storms on Mars occur regularly during the southern summer season when the planet is closer to the Sun along its elliptical orbit. The enhanced solar illumination causes stronger temperature contrasts, with the resulting air movements more readily lifting dust particles from the surface – some of which measure up to about 0.01 mm in size.
Martian dust storms are very impressive, both visually like in this image and in terms of the intensity and duration of the rarer global events, but they are generally weaker compared to hurricanes on Earth. Mars has a much lower atmospheric pressure – less than one hundredth of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at the surface – and martian storms have less than half the typical wind speeds of hurricanes on Earth.
The current storm is being monitored by five ESA and NASA orbiters, while NASA’s Curiosity rover has been observing it from the ground thanks to its nuclear-powered battery. Understanding more about how global storms form and evolve will be critical for future solar-powered missions to Mars.
This colour image was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view of which is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the colour channels of the high-resolution stereo camera. The ground resolution is approximately 16 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 78°N/106°E.
Mars Express is also equipped with the Visual Monitoring Camera that captures daily images of the Red Planet.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
See more at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/A_storm_rolls_in
#Mars #ESA #Space #SpaceScience #RedPlanet #DustStorm #Rover #TheSun #SolarSystem #Planets #MartianDust #MartianStorms #WindSpeeds
A storm rolls in
esa.int
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