Tag Archives: atmosphere

MARCI weather report, April 22-28, 2019

For the past week on Mars, numerous local-scale dust storms of varied size occurred along the southern highlands — below 50° S. latitude. Looking to the northern hemisphere, dust-lifting activity was more sporadic. A couple of arcuate (bow-shaped) dust storms … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, April 15-21, 2019

Conditions poleward of 58° S were dusty as local storms continued to crop-up along the mid- to high-latitudes of Mars last week. Looking to the northern lowlands, a couple of long arcuate-shaped dust storms pressed southward over Acidalia near the … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, April 8-14, 2019

Weather patterns were fairly typical across Mars this past week. Looking to the northern hemisphere, a couple of dust storms dipped southward towards southern Acidalia. Neighboring these events, a local-scale storm occurred over Tempe Terra near the beginning of the … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Trace Gas Orbiter: First science results

New evidence of the impact of the recent planet-encompassing dust storm on water in the atmosphere, and a surprising lack of methane, are among the scientific highlights of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s first year in orbit. Two papers [here … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, April 1-7, 2019

There was a slight uptick in dust storm activity across the southern highlands of Mars this past week. Repeated dust storms were spotted from southern Aonia to Cimmeria on several afternoons. Scanning further northward to the tropics, orographic water ice … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN completes orbit change for Mars 2020

MAVEN has achieved a tighter orbit around Mars to act as a telecommunications relay. The two-month campaign began February 11 and ended April 5. MAVEN’s navigation team slowed the spacecraft down gradually by aerobraking, a process taking advantage of the … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: The magnetic tail of Mars

In this MAVEN outreach webinar from March 27, 2019, Dr. Gina DiBraccio from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center describes what makes the Martian magnetic environment so different from other planets, and how processes in its magnetotail may contribute to atmospheric … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, March 25-31, 2019

For the past week on Mars, transient dust storms and water ice clouds continued to develop along the seasonal north polar ice cap edge. Just a bit further south, a couple fleeting dust storms were spotted extending southward across Acidalia … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, March 18-24, 2019

Northern hemisphere spring arrived along with southern hemisphere autumn this past week on Mars. Southern Aonia experienced dusty conditions as repeated dust-lifting activity continued in the 60° south latitude band. Moving our attention towards the low-latitudes, a stronger presence of … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MARCI weather report, March 11-17, 2019

Last week on Mars, dust-lifting events continued over southern Aonia and Sirenum. The eastward movement of these storms lofted dust into the Argyre impact basin on multiple sols. The Hellas impact basin, on the other hand, was largely unobscured from … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off