Analyzing Local and Global Dust Devil Events on Mars to Visualize the Planet's Global Circulation Patterns
Additional Funding Sources
This project was supported by NASA Solar System Workings Grant No. 80NSSC19K0542.
Abstract
Dust devils are dust-lofting vortices which routinely occur in arid regions on both Earth and Mars. Martian dust devils are frequently several times larger than those on Earth and appear to exert a major influence on the dust content and heat budget of the thin Martian atmosphere. The tops of these dust devils can reach (and so allow us to measure) the lower edge of Mars’ Planetary Boundary Layer. The atmospheric conditions required to generate and propagate Martian dust devils, as well as the size range of dust grains they transport, remain unclear, however.
The Dust Devil research group in Boise State Physics has been studying Martian dust devils, starting with pressure, temperature, and imagery data from NASA’s 2018 Insight lander and expanding this year to include recently released data from the Mars 2020 rover. In this presentation, we will discuss and compare our findings from both of these Mars missions in answering questions, such as: What atmospheric conditions promote vortex formation? What conditions cause vortices to entrain dust (becoming dust devils) vs. remaining dustless? Do some seasons on Mars generate more dust devils than others?
Dr. Susan Conway’s team, located at Nantes University in France, has used machine learning to identify 11,000 potential dust devil images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) imagery. The team has been methodically reviewing each image for dust devil occurrences. Given the MRO’s fixed altitude, the known Solar angle relative to Mars, and the measured shadow length of each dust devil, we can calculate the approximate height and funnel diameter for each dust devil. Over 4,000 images have been reviewed so far, enough to develop a preliminary map of dust devil occurrence rates, classified by size and by location, on the Martian surface.
Analyzing Local and Global Dust Devil Events on Mars to Visualize the Planet's Global Circulation Patterns
Dust devils are dust-lofting vortices which routinely occur in arid regions on both Earth and Mars. Martian dust devils are frequently several times larger than those on Earth and appear to exert a major influence on the dust content and heat budget of the thin Martian atmosphere. The tops of these dust devils can reach (and so allow us to measure) the lower edge of Mars’ Planetary Boundary Layer. The atmospheric conditions required to generate and propagate Martian dust devils, as well as the size range of dust grains they transport, remain unclear, however.
The Dust Devil research group in Boise State Physics has been studying Martian dust devils, starting with pressure, temperature, and imagery data from NASA’s 2018 Insight lander and expanding this year to include recently released data from the Mars 2020 rover. In this presentation, we will discuss and compare our findings from both of these Mars missions in answering questions, such as: What atmospheric conditions promote vortex formation? What conditions cause vortices to entrain dust (becoming dust devils) vs. remaining dustless? Do some seasons on Mars generate more dust devils than others?
Dr. Susan Conway’s team, located at Nantes University in France, has used machine learning to identify 11,000 potential dust devil images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) imagery. The team has been methodically reviewing each image for dust devil occurrences. Given the MRO’s fixed altitude, the known Solar angle relative to Mars, and the measured shadow length of each dust devil, we can calculate the approximate height and funnel diameter for each dust devil. Over 4,000 images have been reviewed so far, enough to develop a preliminary map of dust devil occurrence rates, classified by size and by location, on the Martian surface.