[meteorite-list] Martian Dust Devil Whirls Into Opportunity's View

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:22:05 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201007301922.o6UJM5RS013149_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-250

Martian Dust Devil Whirls Into Opportunity's View
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 28, 2010

In its six-and-a-half years on Mars, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover
Opportunity had never seen a dust devil before this month, despite some
systematic searches in past years and the fact that its twin rover,
Spirit, has seen dozens of dust devils at its location halfway around
the planet.

A tall column of swirling dust appears in a routine image that
Opportunity took with its panoramic camera on July 15. The rover took
the image in the drive direction, east-southeastward, right after a
drive of about 70 meters (230 feet). The image was taken for use in
planning the next drive.

"This is the first dust devil seen by Opportunity," said Mark Lemmon of
Texas A&M University, College Station, a member of the rover science team.

Spirit's area, inside Gusev Crater, is rougher in ground texture, and
dustier, than the area where Opportunity is working in the Meridiani
Planum region. Those factors at Gusev allow vortices of wind to form
more readily and raise more dust, compared to conditions at Meridiani,
Lemmon explained. Orbiters have photographed tracks left by dust devils
near Opportunity, but the tracks are scarcer there than near Spirit.
Swirling winds at Meridiani may be more common than visible signs of
them, if the winds occur where there is no loose dust to disturb.

Just one day before Opportunity captured the dust devil image, wind
cleaned some of the dust off the rover's solar array, increasing
electricity output from the array by more than 10 percent.

"That might have just been a coincidence, but there could be a
connection," Lemmon said. The team is resuming systematic checks for
afternoon dust devils with Opportunity's navigation camera, for the
first time in about three years.

Opportunity and Spirit arrived on Mars in January 2004 for missions
designed to last for three months. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. For more information about the project and
images from the rovers, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers.

Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2010-250
Received on Fri 30 Jul 2010 03:22:05 PM PDT