Tag Archives: haze

Tiny motor on Curiosity detected onset of global dust storm at Gale Crater

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided the earliest insights on May 30 when it observed an accumulation of dust in the atmosphere near Perseverance Valley, where NASA’s Opportunity rover is exploring. The increasingly hazy storm, the biggest since 2007, forced … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report: September 17-23, 2018

During the past week, dusty conditions continued along the retreating seasonal south polar ice cap edge. Sites of activity included Aonia, southern Sirenum, and southwest of Hellas — near the ‘Mountains of Mitchel.’ Looking further northward, dust lifting was relatively … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Martian haze

A massive, planet-encircling dust storm occurred on Mars during the summer of 2018, resulting in many images where the surface could not be seen due to the dust. This is a problem for HiRISE but also gives us an exciting … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, September 10-16, 2018

Multiple local-scale dust storms picked up along the seasonal south polar ice cap of Mars this past week. This activity that extended over Aonia, Cimmeria, and near the Mountains of Mitchel generated a diffuse dust cloud along the cap edge. … Continue reading

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Opportunity: Attempting contact multiple times a day

NASA Mars Exploration Rover Status Report, September 12, 2018: The Opportunity team is increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the rover via the dishes of NASA’s Deep Space Network from three times a week to multiple times per … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Seeing through the dusty air

Mars has been enveloped in dusty haze, but the sensitivity of HiRISE enables imaging of surface features through a moderate level of haze. This image shows a fresh impact crater in the northern middle latitudes. A technique called “pixel binning” … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, September 3-9, 2018

Slightly hazy conditions continued across many regions of Mars last week. Near the start and end of the week, a couple small dust lifting events occurred over the low-latitudes of Noachis Terra. Looking to the eastern hemisphere, a transient local-scale … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, Aug 27-Sept 2, 2018

Dusty atmospheric conditions resulting from the planetary-encircling dust event continued to wane across much of Mars for the past week. Looking to the equatorial latitudes, a couple short-lived dust events were observed over North Central Noachis Terra. Further west, dust … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, August 20-26, 2018

Afternoon skies became less dusty as dust continued to settle out of the atmosphere this past week. In the middle of the week, local dust storm activity returned to Noachis Terra. During that time, a dust storm pushed southward over … Continue reading

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MARCI weather report, August 13-19, 2018

The decay phase of the planet-encircling dust event continued this past week, as dust lofted by the event continued to settle out of the thin martian atmosphere. At southern high-latitudes, small dust storms kicked up along the receding seasonal south … Continue reading

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