ESA’s Mars Express Spots Dust Storms at Martian North Pole

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has observed several local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet.

A dust storm underway at the edge of the north polar ice cap of Mars. The image was taken by Mars Express’ Visual Monitoring Camera on May 29, 2019. Image credit: ESA / GCP / UPV / EHU Bilbao.

A dust storm underway at the edge of the north polar ice cap of Mars. The image was taken by Mars Express’ Visual Monitoring Camera on May 29, 2019. Image credit: ESA / GCP / UPV / EHU Bilbao.

Local and regional storms lasting for a few days or weeks and confined to a small area are common place on Mars, but at their most severe can engulf the entire planet, as experienced last year in a global storm that circled the Red Planet for many months.

It is currently spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and water-ice clouds and small dust-lifting events are frequently observed along the edge of the seasonally retreating ice cap.

Between late May and early June 2019, several different irregular- and spiral-shaped dust storms were seen to be building up at the north polar ice cap of Mars. The images shown here were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Express when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 6,214 miles (10,000 km). The long image strips cover an area of 1,243 by 3,107 miles (2,000 by 5,000 km), extending from the north pole equatorward to the large volcanoes Olympus Mons and Elysium Mons. The montage of images shows three different storms developing on May 22, May 26, and June 6. In the latter case, the cameras watched the storm evolve until June 10, as it moved southward towards the volcanoes. Wispy patches of light-colored clouds can be seen at the outer margin of the polar cap and also several thousand miles away, close to the Elysium volcanoes. At the same time, wispy clouds can be seen along the edge of the ice cap, and also further south (left) around the large volcanoes. The dark patches are the result of dust blown volcanic material on the surface. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Between late May and early June 2019, several different irregular- and spiral-shaped dust storms were seen to be building up at the north polar ice cap of Mars. The images shown here were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Express when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 6,214 miles (10,000 km). The long image strips cover an area of 1,243 by 3,107 miles (2,000 by 5,000 km), extending from the north pole equatorward to the large volcanoes Olympus Mons and Elysium Mons. The montage of images shows three different storms developing on May 22, May 26, and June 6. In the latter case, the cameras watched the storm evolve until June 10, as it moved southward towards the volcanoes. Wispy patches of light-colored clouds can be seen at the outer margin of the polar cap and also several thousand miles away, close to the Elysium volcanoes. At the same time, wispy clouds can be seen along the edge of the ice cap, and also further south (left) around the large volcanoes. The dark patches are the result of dust blown volcanic material on the surface. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

ESA’s Mars Express observed at least eight different storms at the edge of the ice cap between May 22 and June 10, 2019, which formed and dissipated very quickly.

The two cameras onboard the spacecraft, the High Resolution Stereo Camera and the Visual Monitoring Camera, have been monitoring the storms over the last weeks.

The orbiter observed that when the dust storms reached the Martian volcanoes Elysium Mons and Olympus Mons, orographic clouds — water ice clouds driven by the influence of the volcano’s leeward slope on the air flow — that had previously been developing started to evaporate as a result of the air mass being heated by the influx of dust.

 

These dust storms only last a few days; the elevated dust is transported and spread out by global circulation into a thin haze in the lower atmosphere, around 12.5-25 miles (20-40 km) altitude.

Some traces of dust and clouds remained in the volcanic province into mid-June 2019.

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