Tag Archives: atmosphere

MARCI weather report, May 15-21, 2017

For the past week on Mars, arcuate-shaped dust storms and water-ice clouds continued to propagate eastward along the northern seasonal ice cap edge. A few transient dust storms were spotted over Utopia Planitia associated with polar activity. Looking to the … Continue reading

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Curiosity update: Optical depth measurements

Sol 1700-01, May 17, 2017, update by MSL scientist Michael Battalio: Curiosity continues towards Vera Rubin Ridge with a 48 m drive. GEO decided for the touch-and-go option (instead of lengthening the drive like on Sol 1684) using APXS and MAHLI … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, May 8-14, 2017

Short-lived local-scale dust storms continued to sweep over the southern high-latitudes of Mars this past week. In the northern plains, a mix of water-ice clouds and transient dust storms continued along the margin of the seasonal north polar ice cap, … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, April 24-30, 2017

Dust-lifting activity over southern Sirenum and Aonia swelled into a regional-scale dust storm this past week. The storm swept northeast to southern Argyre where it waned and stretched out towards Hellas. Meanwhile, on the other side of the red planet, … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, April 17-23, 2017

The red planet continued to display dust-lifting and water-ice clouds along the seasonal north polar ice cap edge this past week. The plains of Chryse and western Amazonis also experienced a local-scale dust storm or two in the second half … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, April 10-16, 2017

For the past week on Mars, local-scale dust storms continued to develop over the southern high-latitudes. During that time, small short-lived dust storms were observed moving eastward over the seasonal north polar ice cap edge, which are typical this time … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, April 3-9, 2017

Dust-lifting activity increased over the southern high-latitudes of Mars this past week. Southern Sirenum and Aonia encountered repeated local-scale dust storms. Focusing on the northern hemisphere, long arcuate-shaped dust storms advanced over Deuteronilus and Utopia, just south of the seasonal … Continue reading

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MAVEN: Martian atmosphere contains meteoritic metal ions

Mars has electrically charged metal atoms (ions) high in its atmosphere, according to new results from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. The metal ions can reveal previously invisible activity in the mysterious electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere) of Mars. “MAVEN has made … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, March 27-April 2, 2017

The weather on Mars this past week was fairly typical for this time of season. Small short-lived dust storms swept eastward along the seasonal north polar ice cap edge. Looking a bit further south, a couple of local-scale dust storms … Continue reading

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MAVEN argon study: 65% of Mars atmosphere lost

Solar wind and radiation are responsible for stripping the Martian atmosphere, transforming Mars from a planet that could have supported life billions of years ago into a frigid desert world, according to new results from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and … Continue reading

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