Global characterization of the early-season dust storm of Mars year 36

Abstract

Dust storms are one of the most important dust transport mechanisms on Mars with significant impacts on temperatures and atmospheric dynamics. Regional storms generally occur during the spring and summer of the southern hemisphere, but some of them have been observed earlier in the year. While these early-season storms have been little studied over the years, their occurrence produces important dust liftings. Their study, both vertically and horizontally, allows us to understand the mechanism of dust distribution that initiates them and the areas in which their onset takes place. In this study we compare the dust patterns of the early storms of MY 29 and 36. In addition, we analyzed globally, in each longitude, the early storm that occurred in MY 36 which was the most intense detected in such an early time. It presents maximum values of column dust optical depth (CDOD) of 0.5 and temperatures of 197 K. We use dust and temperature measurements provided by the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) instrument and images by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), both on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).