Development of Huge Dust Storms on Mars
Back on June 28, 2001, large dust storms on Mars developed a worldwide haze that was the largest ever documented on the red planet so far to that time by the Mariner 9. But the magical word for major dust storms seems to be day 28 of the month, as year after year dust storms seem to settle on the Martian plains. Autumn is the most significant time frame for media representation of their development in the years 2001, 2003, 2005, along with the recent Martian storm of 2007.
In a MGS MOC Release on June 28, 2003, the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Orbiter Camera offered pictures images of a Martian autumn dust storm that had formed the northern plains and moved eastward and southward on the red planet. Also, offering us a repeat performance on October 27 and 28, 2005, another significant dust storm on Mars allowed us a view unparalled as Mars and Earth were close enough to allow anyone with a good telescope a glimpse of the red planet. At the time of viewing, the storm was 700 to 800 miles across. The next close viewing will be in 2018.
With Mars smaller than Earth, the Martian surface area actually equals the sum of all the Earth continents. A dust storm on Mars would equal to a dust storm on Earth that would cover every continent at once. Can you image? The reason we do not have to worry about major sized dust storms on Earth like the Martian ones is for two major reasons. First of all, we do not offer fuel for any self-sustaining dust storm that results in Earth not being a global desert. The Gobi desert forms huge dust storms that have been known to migrate into the Pacific Ocean area, but there is no feed from any source of dust, so their death occurs rapidly. Second, our dust clouds do not raise the temperature like on Mars, as it is controlled by the latent heat of water vapor. Whereas on Mars, the dust that is continuously absorbing sunlight will substantially heat the dry, thin Martian atmosphere. This in turn will raise the winds, which will raise more dust—all becoming a vicious circle. Once the dust storm on Mars develops, the global air temperature will have raised approximately 30 degrees C higher than before the storm. Thank goodness on Earth we do not have to worry at the present time about global dust storms and any more increasing temperatures than there is already. Seems like this is the second year of global worming that is unmatched in high temperatures since the 1800s.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 6:41 am and is filed under Mission History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
