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These images of Mars released by NASA in 2001 show a dust storm similar to one developing now. At left is the planet in natural color, as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The one on the right shows how a global dust storm engulfed Mars with the onset of Martian spring. (NASA / November 25, 2012) |
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and two planet-based explorers are tracking a massive dust storm, offering scientists an opportunity to study the planet’s weather like none they’ve had before.
The regional dust storm was first spotted on Nov. 10 in the Red Planet's southern hemisphere. Though the storm is considered only “regional,” it’s big enough that it has lowered air pressure on either side of the planet and increased temperatures on the opposite pole by changing the atmosphere’s circulation.
Scientists are waiting to see whether it will develop into a “dust haze” that will engulf the entire planet.
“For the first time since the Viking missions of the 1970s, we are studying a regional dust storm both from orbit and with a weather station on the surface,” said Rich Zurek, chief Mars scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge in a news statement Wednesday.
The storm has come within 900 miles of Mars rover Opportunity, which landed on the planet in 2004 and depends on the sun for energy. On the other side of the planet is Curiosity, the 1-ton, nuclear-powered mobile laboratory that landed earlier this year.
If the dust storm expands, the two rovers combined with the Reconnaissance Orbiter should give scientists an unprecedented view.
“One thing we want to learn is why do some Martian dust storms get to this size and stop growing, while others this size keep growing and go global,” Zurek said.
-- Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times
