The Storm, Dust storm of 2007 |
The Storm, Dust storm of 2007 |
Jul 11 2007, 09:43 PM
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#91
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2922 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Infact -thinking about it - I remember finding comedy in the fact that a Sirocco was dumping sand on my mums VW Sirocco. Doug Did any DD cleaned it up? -------------------- |
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Jul 11 2007, 09:44 PM
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#92
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 22-March 06 Member No.: 722 |
A similar phenomenon we have here is "muddy rain"; it isn't really muddy, of course, but it is rich enough in dust that was lofted into the atmosphere in arid West Texas and deposited here to leave a significant film on one's car.
-------------------- Mayor: Er, Master Betty, what is the Evil Council's plan?
Master Betty: Nyah. Haha. It is EVIL, it is so EVIL. It is a bad, bad plan, which will hurt many... people... who are good. I think it's great that it's so bad. -Kung Pow: Enter the Fist |
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Jul 12 2007, 03:20 AM
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#93
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 3108 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615 |
'helvick' said that figure is "bugging me".
Hi Helvick, That number came straight from someone on the MER team. I'm sure that there's room for error though. Astro0 |
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Jul 12 2007, 03:44 PM
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#94
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4251 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
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Jul 12 2007, 04:38 PM
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#95
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Dublin Correspondent Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 |
Thanks for the confirmation Astr0. I'm going to have to hope that this means that Tau was varying fairly dramatically that day. Otherwise I might have to accept I've been wrong. Oh The Shame!
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Jul 12 2007, 05:04 PM
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#96
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Member Group: Members Posts: 710 Joined: 28-September 04 Member No.: 99 |
According to this report on space.com the dust storm is still spreading.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070711_mars_dust.html and http://themis.asu.edu/dustmaps/ The enormous dust storm raging across Mars' southern half has begun to creep into the northern hemisphere as well, new satellite images reveal. "This storm isn't as big or severe as the one in 2001," Bandfield said. "THEMIS and other orbiters can still see the surface, despite the continuing dust activity." It's uncertain how long the current storm will last, but it probably won't disappear as quickly as it began. "Mars will remain dusty for at least a couple more months," Bandfield predicts. Sounds like the rovers will remain power-starved for a Long time. |
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Jul 12 2007, 05:58 PM
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#97
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1619 Joined: 12-February 06 From: Bergerac - FR Member No.: 678 |
Good eyes fredk. I'm going to make an animation to show this more evident
The Themis link is very good : hop! direct favourite Edit : gif is finish. The is little material disturbing, particulary just behind the low-gain antenna. -------------------- |
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Jul 12 2007, 06:51 PM
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#98
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1229 Joined: 24-December 05 From: The blue one in between the yellow and red ones. Member No.: 618 |
According to this report on space.com the dust storm is still spreading. Sounds like the rovers will remain power-starved for a Long time. Especially long if they read the scale bars in reverse. What's wrong with this picture? space.com figure -------------------- My Grandpa goes to Mars every day and all I get are these lousy T-shirts!
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Jul 12 2007, 07:34 PM
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#99
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4251 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
It occurs to me after comments in the Spirit thread that even though the local times are very similar in the two navcams I posted above, the tau has dropped from around 4 to around 3 so the lighting is less diffuse now. That should account for some of the changes visible in the tracks, but not all.
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Jul 12 2007, 09:45 PM
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#100
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4251 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
From Lemmon's dust devil page, Oppy is stable at tau = 2.9 as of sol 1231, but Spirit has climbed in the past few sols to tau = 2.8 on sol 1252, which is the highest Spirit has ever been.
I get the sense this could linger for some time. The fat lady has not yet sung. |
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Jul 12 2007, 09:56 PM
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#101
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Member Group: Members Posts: 258 Joined: 22-December 06 Member No.: 1503 |
I think you are correct Fred. This storm is not over yet. It could last a few more weeks. These peaks keep rolling into new peaks for other areas of Mars. We don't how bad this will get. It appears to becoming a global storm. Yet as far as we know, it could start to settle down tomorrow.
I'm glad that the tau at Meridiani appears to be stable; but who knows what will happen next? |
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Guest_Oersted_* |
Jul 12 2007, 10:08 PM
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#102
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Guests |
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Jul 13 2007, 06:57 AM
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#103
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
What Viking and Mariner 9 saw was that storm activity keeps popping up and regenerating as long as there are relatively clearer parts of the atmosphere.
Once circulation and recirculation of storm-dust has pretty much uniformly filled the atmosphere with some relatively uniform few tau of dust, temperature differences drop below levels needed to churn up more dust. The storm then transitions to a decay phase, with an atmospheric dust half life of something like a couple weeks. Maybe that's equivalent to one tau's drop per two weeks.. Viking had two dust storms in one year -- most unusual -- the second one started just after the decay of the first storm got dust levels down to maybe about tau=1.. the levels present before the first storm really started. As I recall, the first storm was pre-perihelion.. late spring.. the second was in summer. |
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Jul 13 2007, 07:31 AM
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#104
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
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Jul 13 2007, 09:41 AM
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#105
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Member Group: Members Posts: 221 Joined: 25-March 05 Member No.: 217 |
Hi Doug
These graphs have been very helpful to get an idea of whats going on. Thanks for finding Marks data so quickly and putting it on the site, nice new touches too but perhaps there should be more orange (dust) on the top half of the graph to match the Tau going up. Roy |
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