Scientists looking into the cause of mammoth dust storms that can sweep across nearly all of Mars think they’ve discovered a key factor behind these rollicking storms.
The driving forces behind Martian dust storms continue to elude scientists. The study, presented at an academic conference earlier this month, takes experts a step closer to understanding these impressive storms.
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A global dust storm envelops Mars in June/July 2001. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
A desolate rock adorned by rusty red dust, Mars is the only planet (so far as we know) that’s entirely populated by active robots. That dust is responsible for the demise of at least one of those rovers, and it could prove problematic for any visitors we may send to Mars in the future.
Despite its thin atmosphere and lack of liquid water, the planet is always brimming with activity.
Dust storms are the showpiece of the Martian atmosphere. These immense plumes of dust can whip up in a hurry, growing so large that they entirely obscure the planet’s surface for days on end.
How exactly do those troublesome dust storms form, though? Scientists still aren’t sure. But they think they’re one step closer to the answer.
Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder recently presented a study in which they found a compelling link between warmer temperatures and the onset of dust storms.
“They discovered that roughly 68% of major storms on the planet were preceded by a sharp rise in temperatures at the surface,” the university said in a press release announcing the study’s conclusions.
NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this growing dust storm in June 2018. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The team surveyed surface temperatures and optical brightness data collected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) over a period of about seven years on the red planet—the equivalent of a little over 13 years here on Earth.
“Our results thus far point to a strong correlation between warming of the mid-latitude surface and subsequent dust storm activity,” they said in the study.
While the researchers found a strong link between warm temperatures and dust storms, the precise mechanism behind the formation of those dust storms remains cloudy.
Here on Earth, warm air near the surface rising through the atmosphere helps produce clouds and breezes. This could be an important factor behind Martian dust storms.
“When you heat up the surface, the layer of atmosphere right above it becomes buoyant, and it can rise, taking dust with it,” one researcher said in the press release.