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

Transcript

00:00January 2022, a dust storm nearly twice the size of the United States blankets Mars's

00:12southern hemisphere, reducing sunlight and uniting NASA's spacecraft to help one another

00:17through the storm.

00:19NASA's Curiosity rover captured these images as the dust rolled in, obscuring the horizon.

00:26Also in the storm's path was NASA's InSight lander, which had to stop its science work

00:31after dust prevented sunlight from reaching the solar panels.

00:35InSight hunkered down for 11 days to conserve battery power, but didn't weather the storm

00:41alone.

00:42A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor dust storms from above, and serves as a lifeline to Earth,

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

00:53Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they

00:58rise, warming the cold Martian atmosphere.

01:02Storms are first detected by MRO's Mars Color Imager, or MARSI, which produces a daily global

01:08weather map.

01:10As dust rises in the atmosphere, MRO's Mars Climate Sounder instrument measures temperature

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

01:19MAVEN studies the upper atmosphere, including how dust affects the escape of water and other

01:24gases from the atmosphere.

01:27And for 20 years, Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, has helped measure

01:33global dust activity over time.

01:36The orbiter sends most of InSight's data to Earth, but as Odyssey went to check in on

01:41InSight, it experienced a software issue.

01:45The Odyssey team swung into action, recovering quickly so engineers could send new instructions

01:51to InSight.

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

01:58conditions improved.

02:01Dust storms form during all Martian seasons.

02:03Some can balloon in a matter of days, like the 2018 global dust storm, which led to the

02:09end of NASA's Opportunity rover.

02:12Despite the challenges dust creates for spacecraft, studying storms is critical for creating future

02:17weather forecasts and preparing for a potential human mission to Mars.

02:24To get the latest updates, follow at NASA JPL and at NASA Mars on social media, or take

02:31a deeper dive on the mission websites at mars.nasa.gov.