How Does NASA Monitor Dust Storm On Mars?

Space.com

Learn how NASA’s satellite fleet helps provide weather Information for the missions on the surface of Mars.   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 January, 2022, a dust storm nearly twice the size

00:09 of the United States blankets Mars' Southern Hemisphere,

00:13 reducing sunlight and uniting NASA's spacecraft

00:16 to help one another through the storm.

00:19 NASA's Curiosity rover captured these images

00:22 as the dust rolled in, obscuring the horizon.

00:26 Also in the storm's path was NASA's InSight lander,

00:29 which had to stop its science work

00:31 after dust prevented sunlight

00:33 from reaching the solar panels.

00:35 InSight hunkered down for 11 days to conserve battery power,

00:40 but didn't weather the storm alone.

00:42 A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor dust storms from above

00:46 and serves as a lifeline to Earth,

00:48 relaying data from Mars' explorers back to the team.

00:52 Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground

00:56 and are spread by wind as they rise,

00:59 warming the cold Martian atmosphere.

01:02 Storms are first detected by MRO's Mars Color Imager,

01:05 or MARSI, which produces a daily global weather map.

01:10 As dust rises in the atmosphere,

01:12 MRO's Mars Climate Sounder instrument measures temperature

01:15 to determine how fast the storm could spread.

01:19 MAVEN studies the upper atmosphere,

01:21 including how dust affects the escape of water

01:24 and other gases from the atmosphere.

01:26 And for 20 years, Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System,

01:31 or THEMIS, has helped measure global dust activity over time.

01:36 The orbiter sends most of InSight's data to Earth,

01:39 but as Odyssey went to check in on InSight,

01:42 it experienced a software issue.

01:45 The Odyssey team swung into action,

01:47 recovering quickly so engineers

01:49 could send new instructions to InSight.

01:53 The dust even grounded NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter,

01:57 postponing flights until conditions improved.

02:00 Dust storms form during all Martian seasons.

02:03 Some can balloon in a matter of days,

02:06 like the 2018 global dust storm,

02:08 which led to the end of NASA's Opportunity rover.

02:12 Despite the challenges dust creates for spacecraft,

02:15 studying storms is critical

02:17 for creating future weather forecasts

02:19 and preparing for a potential human mission to Mars.

02:24 To get the latest updates,

02:25 follow @NASAJPL and @NASAMars on social media,

02:30 or take a deeper dive on the mission websites

02:33 at mars.nasa.gov.

02:36 (upbeat music)

02:38 (dramatic music)

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