Mars Dust storm over Mare Erythraeum region 11-13 April by C.Foster |
Whilst I myself have been prevented from imaging for a few days due to cloud, I have been enjoying following the images on various planetary forums. In particular those in the East have been putting out some really great results. In following the Mars images, I was particularly interested in a set of 3 images by Niall MacNeill over the period 11-13 April. Although Niall was highlighting some darkening in the south, I suspected that there was some significant activity over the M Erythraeum region which appeared to develop over the 3 days, and which I suspected to be dust. This appeared to correlate with images from Andy Casely which showed some brightening in the Chasma Eos/Capri extensions of Valles Marineris, very reminiscent of some of the images late in the global dust storm of 2018. Anyway, I took the liberty of contacting the MARCI MRO team at MSSS and Bruce Cantor very kindly sent me the attached(with his permission) MARCI composite image, which I have annotated. In addition, he provided the following comments: gHi Clyde, Wefre good thanks for asking. Working from home remotely, so at least I have a shorter commute to the office. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Wefre still taking and processing MARCI data. There was a fairly large dust storm that developed over the last few days. It was a merger scenario with a storm around eastern Valles Marineris and a storm that came north the seasonal south polar cap edge in Noachis. Even looks like part of the dust cloud lofted by the storm extended across the equator into the northern tropics around 20 West Longitude. Central and eastern chasms (Melas, Coprates, Capri, and Eos) of Valles Marineris are dusty. Latest MARCI imaging from the13th (attached) indicate the storm is starting to abate (lack of convective structure within the dust cloud boundary). A short-lived regional storm, but given the areal extent of the dust cloud lofted it should be visible for another sol or two as the dust settles out of the lower atmosphere. Feel free to share the image.h So it was nice to confirm the regional dust storm in Niallfs and Andyfs images. Although it appears that it may be dissipating, it may be worth following for a few more days. It is also interesting to note that Hellas is still bright, possibly indicating ongoing dust activity, whereas Argyre appears quieter. I have included Niallfs original set of images and also Andyfs image(I hope you guys donft mind) for easy reference. [Clyde Foster:Centurion,South Africa]
ALPO-Japan Latest Mars Section