Spirit cleaner? Options

[TheChemist]

Looks like some guys will finally get actual data to verify their simulations

[alan]

Dust from the storm in Meridini appears to have been transferred to Spirit's side of the planet.

The shadows are getting weaker



Scattered sunlight is visible in the navcams taken recently

[hortonheardawho]

sol 1204 - 1244 L2 comparison of Husband Hill:

[Floyd]

Horton, that is dramatic. A layer of dust almost completely hides the dark sands. And in just a few days. Wow

[djellison]

Bloody hell! The way the whole area beyond the middle-ground horizon is softened makes me think we're seing one of the DD's that deteriorates into just a swirling body of dust heading across the foot of El Dorado. Well spotted.

Doug

[alan]

Ah, that explains why the color images of the left and right sides of El Dorado are so different.

[hortonheardawho]

Ah, indeed:



The right frame is 98 seconds after the left -- which seems to be clearer -- but still dusty.

SO, a dust devil was moving right to left?

[fredk]

I'd say left to right. The gust could easily have passed before the right side was imaged.

Interestingly, I'm pretty confident you can see another gust (maybe the same one?) just below the foreground "horizon" in this L7 frame. That foreground horizon is about the same distance in this frame, but it looks much darker than in the previous frame I posted.

All this really makes me wonder what it would be like standing there with the rover. We know the rover must only image a small fraction of all dds/gusts that pass by. How dynamic or "alive" would the air be at 1pm on a summer afternoon? Would something be happening somewhere around you at all times?

[Pertinax]

Well noted indeed, and what a catch.

I was just going to note that the 1244 view that Hort posted looked less to me like deposited dust and more like dust being raised and actively blown along on the wind at the time of the picture. I'll say -- miss one day for lack of broadband and you miss out on worlds of adventure!

Cheers,


-- Pertinax

[PDP8E]

Hi All,

Is there a website of returned engineering MER data (similar to returned image data) ??

It would be nice to see the per sol: Wh, temps, amps, -etc

tnx

[climber]

From the latest Planetary Society report, this description of the sol 1224 cleaning event:

Sorry All, I was away and missed the whole thing, DD & big storm. May be you've talked about it but as I'll need 2 days before been updated on the whole UMSF , I'd better ask this question now : can the event that have cleaned Spirit as described by SS be a premice of the Big Storm instead of a "normal" dust cleaning event ?

[djellison]

Yes - cleaning is usually thought to be due to high winds

Dust storms are thought to cause high winds

Thus - major cleaning and dust storms tend to be closely related.

Maybe it's something to do with the change in illumination - BUT - Opportunity looks utterly A1 clean right now.

Doug

[climber]

Yes - cleaning is usually thought to be due to high winds
Dust storms are thought to cause high winds
Doug

I don't know how it works, a meteorologist can help on this, but I was thinking of a kind of depression created by the storm that would have led it by a few hours. Does it make sense?

[Stu]

Giving another talk later this week and would appreciate advice on this pic I've made for it...



With all the extra atmospheric dust is the sky too blue? Not blue enough? Not going for 1000% scientific accuracy this time, just wanting to try and put across the beauty of Mars...

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Just checked out my window here on Mars, and yes, it looks about right.