Tag Archives: atmosphere

Early results from MAVEN [video]

The MAVEN mission is designed to explore Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interactions with the Sun and solar wind. The goal of MAVEN is to understand the processes controlling the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of … Continue reading

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MAVEN: Second deep-dip campaign completed

The second “deep-dip” campaign of MAVEN’s primary science mission was successfully carried out this week. After the five-day campaign, which brought the MAVEN spacecraft down to a periapsis of 131.5km, MAVEN is now back in its nominal science mapping corridor. … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: April 13-19, 2015

Quiet weather week, Storm near Elysium and Alba Patera The north polar hood Shrouds the seasonal cap edge In a veil of clouds Elsewhere, clear skies above As solar conjunction nears. Rovers keep roving [More at link, including video]   … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: April 6-12, 2015

The extensive diffuse dust cloud that has been observed over the southern high latitudes, during the past few weeks, began to dissipate. In the northern hemisphere, the seasonal polar ice cap was visible over the northern plains as far south … Continue reading

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MAVEN completes first 1,000 orbits

MAVEN completed 1,000 orbits around the Red Planet on April 6, four-and-a-half months into its one-year primary mission. MAVEN is in its science-mapping orbit and has been taking data since the start of its primary mission on Nov. 16, 2014. … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: March 30 – April 5, 2015

The equator-crossing regional dust storm reported the previous week, had subsided over the course of the past week. The southern high latitudes continued to be enveloped in a diffuse dust haze, a remnant feature of last month’s dust lifting. Local-scale … Continue reading

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Curiosity sniffs out history of Mars atmosphere

NASA’s Curiosity rover is using a new experiment to better understand the history of the Martian atmosphere by analyzing xenon. While NASA’s Curiosity rover concluded its detailed examination of the rock layers of the “Pahrump Hills” in Gale Crater on … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: March 23-29, 2015

Active dust lifting south of Hellas continued during the first few days of the week, contributing suspended particles to a lingering haze that extended across the southern high latitudes. Portions of the high latitude residual haze extended north into Cimmeria … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: March 16-22, 2015

Dust-lifting in the southern high latitudes of Cimmeria-Promethei developed into a large regional dust storm over the course of the week. The storm propagated eastward from Cimmeria into Sirenum obscuring the surface up to ~50°S latitude. By the end of … Continue reading

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MAVEN discovers aurora, high dust cloud at Mars

The MAVEN spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere. The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) … Continue reading

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