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How Does NASA Monitor Dust Storm On Mars?
Space.com
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17/04/2025
Learn how NASA’s satellite fleet helps provide weather Information for the missions on the surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Tech
Transcript
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00:00
January 2022. A dust storm nearly twice the size of the United States blankets Mars' southern
00:12
hemisphere, reducing sunlight and uniting NASA's spacecraft to help one another through the storm.
00:19
NASA's Curiosity rover captured these images as the dust rolled in, obscuring the horizon.
00:25
Also in the storm's path was NASA's InSight lander, which had to stop its science work after dust
00:32
prevented sunlight from reaching the solar panels. InSight hunkered down for 11 days to conserve
00:38
battery power, but didn't weather the storm alone. A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor dust storms from
00:45
above and serves as a lifeline to Earth, relaying data from Mars' explorers back to the team. Dust
00:53
storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise,
00:59
warming the cold Martian atmosphere. Storms are first detected by MRO's Mars Color Imager,
01:05
or MARSI, which produces a daily global weather map. As dust rises in the atmosphere, MRO's Mars
01:13
Climate Sounder instrument measures temperature to determine how fast the storm could spread.
01:18
MAVEN studies the upper atmosphere, including how dust affects the escape of water and other gases from
01:25
the atmosphere. And for 20 years, Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, has helped measure
01:33
global dust activity over time. The orbiter sends most of InSight's data to Earth, but as Odyssey went to
01:41
check in on InSight, it experienced a software issue. The Odyssey team swung into action, recovering quickly
01:48
so engineers could send new instructions to InSight. The dust even grounded NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter,
01:57
postponing flights until conditions improved. Dust storms formed during all Martian seasons. Some can
02:03
balloon in a matter of days, like the 2018 global dust storm, which led to the end of NASA's Opportunity
02:11
rover. Despite the challenges dust creates for spacecraft, studying storms is critical for creating future
02:17
weather forecasts and preparing for a potential human mission to Mars. To get the latest updates, follow
02:25
at NASA JPL and at NASA Mars on social media, or take a deeper dive on the mission websites at mars.nasa.gov.
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