Monitoring a changing spot on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 18, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Based on its label, “Dark Filamentary Streak Year-Round Monitor Site in Promethei Terra,” it was apparently taken as part of a long-term project to monitor the changes that occur at this particular spot on Mars.
This monitoring began in 2008, not long after MRO began science operations. In that first image, taken in the Martian autumn, almost the entire terrain was covered with dust devil tracks, all running more-or-less parallel to each other in a northwest-to-southeast direction.
That unusual tiger-striped landscape prompted later monitoring. However, a follow-up photo in 2010, also in autumn, showed practically no dust tracks here at all. Another image, taken in 2011 during the Martian summer, showed new dust devil tracks, but instead of being aligned as in 2008, the tracks went in all directions, with only a hint of alignment to the southeast.
Since then scientists have used MRO to monitor this site on a regular basis. In each case, the tracks appear to come and go, their pattern changing each time. I have tried to find a research paper based on these images, but have been unable to do so. That research would probably tell us if the changes are associated with the seasons, or with global or localized dust storms.
On the overview map to the right, the black dot inside the glacial region east of Hellas Basin marks this location, at 53 degrees south latitude. Despite being in the mid-latitudes and in a region where a lot of glacial features are found, this particular spot shows no such features. All the pictures show a relatively smooth landscape of very gently rolling hills, interspersed with a very small number of craters. While it is possible this entire surface is covered with ice (protected by a layer of debris), I have my doubts. In other places where the ground has lots of near-surface ice, there are always features that reveal its presence in some manner. In this case there are no such features.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 18, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Based on its label, “Dark Filamentary Streak Year-Round Monitor Site in Promethei Terra,” it was apparently taken as part of a long-term project to monitor the changes that occur at this particular spot on Mars.
This monitoring began in 2008, not long after MRO began science operations. In that first image, taken in the Martian autumn, almost the entire terrain was covered with dust devil tracks, all running more-or-less parallel to each other in a northwest-to-southeast direction.
That unusual tiger-striped landscape prompted later monitoring. However, a follow-up photo in 2010, also in autumn, showed practically no dust tracks here at all. Another image, taken in 2011 during the Martian summer, showed new dust devil tracks, but instead of being aligned as in 2008, the tracks went in all directions, with only a hint of alignment to the southeast.
Since then scientists have used MRO to monitor this site on a regular basis. In each case, the tracks appear to come and go, their pattern changing each time. I have tried to find a research paper based on these images, but have been unable to do so. That research would probably tell us if the changes are associated with the seasons, or with global or localized dust storms.
On the overview map to the right, the black dot inside the glacial region east of Hellas Basin marks this location, at 53 degrees south latitude. Despite being in the mid-latitudes and in a region where a lot of glacial features are found, this particular spot shows no such features. All the pictures show a relatively smooth landscape of very gently rolling hills, interspersed with a very small number of craters. While it is possible this entire surface is covered with ice (protected by a layer of debris), I have my doubts. In other places where the ground has lots of near-surface ice, there are always features that reveal its presence in some manner. In this case there are no such features.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Looks like a retinal scan. Maybe it is.