NASA Announces August 4 News Briefing On MRO Science Finding Options

[bluemars1]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/aug/H...Mars_Brief.html

[nprev]

Possibly a naive question, but do any of the currently active orbiters have an instrument that can determine atmospheric humidity levels with high spatial resolution?

I'm sure there's not, but those would seem to be the root requirements for exactly the sort of gizmo you'd need to catch these things in the act & prove they're made by flowing mud.

[Drkskywxlt]

do any of the currently active orbiters have an instrument that can determine atmospheric humidity levels with high spatial resolution?

Mars Climate Sounder onboard MRO can detect water vapor (and thus you can calculate humidity as it detects temperature also).

But it probably wouldn't work for this scenario. It's not ideal for detecting these values in the lowest layers in the atmosphere and whatever water comes out of these features probably won't significantly effect the water vapor concentration at higher altitudes.