Land of dust devils
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image to the right demonstrates that the atmosphere and climate of Mars is truly different in different places. The picture, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 22, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample”, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
I post it today almost to illustrate the difference between this location and the spot where the lander Insight landed on Mars. Earlier this week the MRO camera team released a short movie created by images of the lander taken over six years, showing how the dust around it had changed over time. I noted further how those images showed a very small number of dust devil tracks, which explained why no dust devil every crossed over the lander’s solar panels to clean them of dust.
For the picture on the right, however, there are a lot of dust devil tracks, so many near the bottom that they almost completely darken the ground.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location of this picture, in the southern part of Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. Insight’s landing location can be seen to the upper right.
Let’s count the differences. Insight landed in the Martian dry tropics, in the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains. Today’s picture is in the cold and icy southern mid-latitudes of Mars, and within the deep basin of Hellas.
Thus, today’s picture is at a much colder location where the atmosphere is much thicker (being considerably lower in elevation) and carrying more ice particles (picked up from the near-surface ice found at these latitudes). The many dust devil tracks indicate that the annual changes of the seasons likely cause many dust devils to occur.
Insight meanwhile sat in a dry high latitude. The atmosphere was thinner, there was no water at all on the ground or in the air, and thus there were fewer dust devils.
I am simplifying a complex situation of course. Further data and research will be required to better understand the reasons for the difference. The difference however tells us again that Mars is complex, and will require a lot of study to understand truly.
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.
Today’s cool image to the right demonstrates that the atmosphere and climate of Mars is truly different in different places. The picture, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 22, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample”, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
I post it today almost to illustrate the difference between this location and the spot where the lander Insight landed on Mars. Earlier this week the MRO camera team released a short movie created by images of the lander taken over six years, showing how the dust around it had changed over time. I noted further how those images showed a very small number of dust devil tracks, which explained why no dust devil every crossed over the lander’s solar panels to clean them of dust.
For the picture on the right, however, there are a lot of dust devil tracks, so many near the bottom that they almost completely darken the ground.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location of this picture, in the southern part of Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. Insight’s landing location can be seen to the upper right.
Let’s count the differences. Insight landed in the Martian dry tropics, in the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains. Today’s picture is in the cold and icy southern mid-latitudes of Mars, and within the deep basin of Hellas.
Thus, today’s picture is at a much colder location where the atmosphere is much thicker (being considerably lower in elevation) and carrying more ice particles (picked up from the near-surface ice found at these latitudes). The many dust devil tracks indicate that the annual changes of the seasons likely cause many dust devils to occur.
Insight meanwhile sat in a dry high latitude. The atmosphere was thinner, there was no water at all on the ground or in the air, and thus there were fewer dust devils.
I am simplifying a complex situation of course. Further data and research will be required to better understand the reasons for the difference. The difference however tells us again that Mars is complex, and will require a lot of study to understand truly.
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.
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