Tag Archives: dust storms

Opportunity: Dust storm may have peaked

NASA Mars Exploration Rover Status Report, August 2, 2018: The planet-encircling dust storm on Mars is showing indications of peaking and perhaps decaying. Dust lifting sites have decreased in extent and some surface features are starting to become visible. The storm … Continue reading

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Opportunity report, Sol 5162, by A.J.S. Rayl, The Planetary Society

August 1, 2018: Dust Storm Wanes, Opportunity Sleeps, Team Prepares Recovery Strategy: Opportunity may be seeing the light again, a little sunlight that is. As the veteran Mars Exploration Rover (MER) slept in Endeavour Crater’s Perseverance Valley under the thick … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, July 23-29, 2018

During the past week, dust continued to gradually settle out of the martian atmosphere as part of the long decay phase of the planet-encircling dust event. Regional surface albedo features, such as Noachis, Syrtis, Cimmeria, and Sirenum became more prominent. … Continue reading

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Opportunity: Deep sleep continues beneath raging dust storm

[Editor note: Entry bumped because of update] NASA Mars Exploration Rover Status Report, updated at 2:25 p.m. PDT on July 26, 2018: It’s the beginning of the end for the planet-encircling dust storm on Mars. But it could still be … Continue reading

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HST images dusty Mars (and Phobos and Deimos) at opposition

With both Saturn and Mars coming to opposition — lying directly opposite the Sun in the sky — this summer, scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope to image both planets. But unlike the previous opposition, Mars is experiencing a planet-wide … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, July 16-22, 2018

Dust clouds and hazes still loomed over Mars last week. Some atmospheric clearing was spotted over Noachis and Aonia Terra as the planet-encircling dust event transitioned to a decay phase. The edges of the canyons that make up Valles Marineris … Continue reading

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Weather update from Gale Crater

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Mars ‘storm chasers’ seek dusty secrets

Storm chasing takes luck and patience on Earth — and even more so on Mars. For scientists watching the Red Planet from data gathered by NASA’s orbiters, the past month has been a windfall. “Global” dust storms, where a runaway … Continue reading

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Mars Express: As the dust storm rolled in

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. … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, July 9-15, 2018

Dusty conditions across Mars as the planet-encircling dust event dragged on for another week. Local-scale dust lifting was spotted over Solis-Sinai and along the developing north polar hood. Each afternoon, water-ice gravity wave (a.k.a. lee wave) clouds trailed from the … Continue reading

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