Related papers: Detection of spark discharges in an agitated Mars …

Laboratory experiments show that dusty bodies in a gaseous environment eject dust particles if they are illuminated. We find that even more intense dust eruptions occur when the light source is turned off. We attribute this to a compression…

Insolation of the Martian soil leads to a sub-surface overpressure due to thermal creep gas flow. This could support particle entrainment into the atmosphere. Short time shadowing e.g. by the traverse of a larger dust devil would enhance…

Surfaces of planetary bodies can have strong electric fields, subjecting conductive grains to repulsive electrostatic forces. This has been proposed as mechanism to eject grains from the ground. To quantify this process, we study mm-sized…

Airborne dust plays an active role in determining the thermal structure and chemical composition of the present-day atmosphere of Mars and possibly the planet's climate evolution over time through radiative--convective and cloud…

We investigate the influence of impacts of large planetesimals and small planetary embryos on the early Martian surface on the hydrodynamic escape of an early steam atmosphere that is exposed to the high soft X-ray and EUV flux of the young…

This paper presents the Mars Dust Storm Detector (MDSD), a system that leverages the THz Opportunistic Integrated Sensing and Communications (OISAC) signals between Mars surface assets (rovers and landers) to extract environmental…

Potential microbial contamination of Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, which can be brought about by transportation of Mars ejecta produced by meteoroid impacts on the Martian surface, has been comprehensively assessed in a statistical…

A radiative-dynamic positive feedback mechanism (Wind Enhanced Interaction of Radiation and Dust: WEIRD) for localized Mars dust disturbances was previously found to operate in highly idealized numerical experiments. Numerical simulations…

The InSight mission has operated on the surface of Mars for nearly two Earth years, returning detections of the first Marsquakes. The lander also deployed a meteorological instrument package and cameras to monitor local surface activity.…

A new physical hypothesis predicts that a weak coupling of the orbital and rotational motions of extended bodies may give rise to a modulation of circulatory flows within their atmospheres. Driven cycles of intensification and relaxation of…

Dust emission mechanisms as one aspect of wind-driven particle motion on planetary surfaces are still poorly understood. The microphysics is important though as it determines dust sizes and morphologies which set sedimentation speeds and…

The existence of volcanic lightning and alteration of the atmospheric potential gradient in the vicinity of near-vent volcanic plumes provides strong evidence for the charging of volcanic ash. More subtle electrical effects are also visible…

An important and perhaps dominant source of dust in the martian atmosphere, dust devils play a key role in Mars' climate. Datasets from previous landed missions have revealed dust devil activity, constrained their structures, and elucidated…

Volcanic eruptions are associated with a wide range of electrostatic effects. Increasing evidence suggests that high-altitude discharges (lightning) in maturing plumes are driven by electrification processes that require the formation of…

Small convective vortices occur ubiquitously on Mars, frequently as dust devils, and they produce detectable signals in meteorological data -- in pressure, temperature, and wind speed and direction. In addition to being important…

We study the 2018 Martian Global DustStorm (GDS 2018) over the Southern Polar Region using images obtained by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Mars Express during June and July 2018. Dust penetrated into the polar cap region but…

We present spatial and temporal distributions of dust on Mars from Ls = 331 in MY26 until Ls = 80 in MY33 retrieved from the measurements taken by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) aboard Mars Express. In agreement with previous…

A diagnosis of the Ar densities measured by the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer aboard the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and the temperatures derived from these densities shows that solar activity, solar insolation,…

Airborne dust is an important constituent in the Martian atmosphere because of its radiative interaction with the atmospheric circulation, and dust size is one crucial factor in determining this effect. In numerical modeling of the dust…

Production of runaway electron avalanches and gamma rays originating inside Martian dust storms are studied using Monte Carlo simulations. In the absence of in situ measurements, we use theoretical predictions of electric fields inside dust…