Regional Martian dust storms help suck water from Mars
Orbital data now shows that both global and regional dust storms on Mars help remove the planet’s water, allowing it to reach higher atmospheric elevations where solar radiation breaks it up and it escapes into space.
Scientists have long suspected that Mars, once warm and wet like Earth, has lost most of its water largely through this process, but they didn’t realize the significant impact of regional dust storms, which happen nearly every summer in the planet’s southern hemisphere. Globe-enveloping dust storms that strike typically every three to four Martian years were thought to be the main culprits, along with the hot summer months in the southern hemisphere when Mars is closer to the Sun.
But the Martian atmosphere also gets heated during smaller, regional dust storms, according to a new paper published August 16 in the journal Nature Astronomy. The researchers, an international team led by Chaffin, found that Mars loses double the amount of water during a regional storm as it does during a southern summer season without regional storms.
This conclusion is based on data gathers from three different orbiters during a regional dust storm in early 2019.
Orbital data now shows that both global and regional dust storms on Mars help remove the planet’s water, allowing it to reach higher atmospheric elevations where solar radiation breaks it up and it escapes into space.
Scientists have long suspected that Mars, once warm and wet like Earth, has lost most of its water largely through this process, but they didn’t realize the significant impact of regional dust storms, which happen nearly every summer in the planet’s southern hemisphere. Globe-enveloping dust storms that strike typically every three to four Martian years were thought to be the main culprits, along with the hot summer months in the southern hemisphere when Mars is closer to the Sun.
But the Martian atmosphere also gets heated during smaller, regional dust storms, according to a new paper published August 16 in the journal Nature Astronomy. The researchers, an international team led by Chaffin, found that Mars loses double the amount of water during a regional storm as it does during a southern summer season without regional storms.
This conclusion is based on data gathers from three different orbiters during a regional dust storm in early 2019.