A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on the surface of Mars in 2012, has been dedicatedly exploring the Martian landscape to beam back new insights about the Red Planet. Now, one of its latest captures is a whirling dust storm raging in our neighbouring world.
Mars is known for its dust storms, in 2018 the planet recorded its largest dust storm, which also killed the Opportunity rover. The latest black-and-white image, which gives us a glimpse of these ‘dust devils’ occurring on Mars, was captured by Curiosity's Navcam on Sol (day in Mars) 2847, and details the storm for about five minutes.
The Curiosity camera created the dust devil movies by capturing multiple images over a period of time, which were then processed, because of which they appear quite faint.
“But this dust devil was so impressive that—if you look closely!—you can just see it moving to the right, at the border between the darker and lighter slopes, even in the raw images,” stated Clair Newman, Atmospheric Scientist at Aeolis Research.
Through these small movies, scientists are able to understand the formation, size, direction, and duration of the whirlwinds. The latest images were captured on August 9, 2020 and showcase whirling over a part of the crater.
The rover, at present, is located at the Gale crater of Mars at the southern hemisphere of the planet, which is experiencing its summer season. Therefore, the atmosphere in the region is consistently heating up.
The strong surface heating of Mars lasts from early spring through mid-summer, as per NASA. "Stronger surface heating tends to produce stronger convection and convective vortices, which consist of fast winds whipping around low pressure cores," writes Newman.
The ripples in the GIF movie can be seen moving from sol to sol (day) due to the blowing wind that lifts the sand grains. The Red Planet supports an atmosphere that is much thinner as compared to Earth, but it is nevertheless capable of creating winds. When these winds gain pace, the dry particles of dust on the Martian surface and in the atmosphere begin moving, thereby creating dust storms. Larger dust storms generally occur during the summers in the southern hemisphere.
Capturing these images helps scientists understand the wind direction and how strong the winds are. Moreover, it also sheds light on the wind and dust activity, which is also a phenomenon that largely takes place during Martian summers.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMieGh0dHBzOi8vd2VhdGhlci5jb20vZW4tSU4vaW5kaWEvc3BhY2UvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA5LTAxLW5hc2FzLWN1cmlvc2l0eS1yb3Zlci1zcG90cy1kdXN0LWRldmlsLXN0b3JtLW92ZXItbWFycy1nYWxlLWNyYXRlctIBAA?oc=5
2020-09-01 13:33:41Z
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