How Does NASA Monitor Dust Storm On Mars?
Learn how NASA’s satellite fleet helps provide weather Information for the missions on the surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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TechTranscript
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)