Related papers: Releasing Atmospheric Martian Dust in Sand Grain I…
Our earlier laboratory measurements showed that low-velocity sand impacts release fine <5 {\mu}m dust from a Martian simulant soil. This dust will become airborne in the Martian atmosphere. Here, we extend this study by measuring…
Dust and sand motion are a common sight on Mars. Understanding the interaction of atmosphere and Martian soil is fundamental to describe the planet's weather, climate and surface morphology. We set up a wind tunnel to study the lift of a…
Lifting dust and sand into the thin Martian atmosphere is a challenging problem. Atmospheric pressure excursions within dust devils have been proposed to support lifting. We verify this idea in laboratory experiments. Pressure differences…
Numerous laboratory experiments, starting in the Viking Lander era, have reported that frictional interactions between Martian analog dust grains can catalyze electrostatic processes (i.e. triboelectrification). Such findings have been…
The wind-driven hopping motion of sand grains, known as saltation, forms dunes and ripples and ejects fine dust particles into the atmosphere on both Earth and Mars. While the wind speed at which saltation is initiated, the fluid threshold,…
Within the RoadMap project we investigated the microphysical aspects of particle collisions during saltation on the Martian surface in laboratory experiments. Following the size distribution of ejected particles, their aerodynamic…
Wind-blown sand, or 'saltation,' creates sand dunes, erodes geological features, and could be a significant source of dust aerosols on Mars. Moreover, the electrification of sand and dust in saltation, dust storms, and dust devils could…
Aims. An asymmetric dust cloud was detected around the Moon by the Lunar Dust Experiment on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission. We investigate the dynamics of the grains that escape the Moon and their…
Martian planet-encircling dust storms or global dust storms (GDS), resulting from the combined influence of local and regional storms, are uncommon aperiodic phenomena: with an average frequency of approximately one every 3-4 MY, they…
Coagulation of particles occurs when two particles collide and stick together. In the Martian atmosphere, dust coagulation would increase the effective particle size, as small particles accrete to larger particles. Murphy et al. (1990)…
Much of the surface of Mars is covered by dunes, ripples, and other features formed by the blowing of sand by wind, known as saltation. In addition, saltation loads the atmosphere with dust aerosols, which dominate the Martian climate. We…
The illuminated dusty surface of Mars acts like a gas pump. It is driven by thermal creep at low pressure within the soil. In the top soil layer this gas flow has to be sustained by a pressure gradient. This is equivalent to a lifting force…
Aeolian sediment transport is observed to occur on Mars as well as other extraterrestrial environments, generating ripples and dunes as on Earth. The search for terrestrial analogues of planetary bedforms, as well as environmental…
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…
We reply to the comment by Andreotti and Claudin (submitted to Phys. Rev. E, arXiv:0705.3525) on our paper ``Minimal Size of a Barchan Dune'' [Phys. Rev. E {\bf{75,}} 011301 (2007)]. We show that the equations of the dune model used in our…
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…
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…
Lower atmospheric global dust storms affect the small- and large-scale weather and variability of the whole Martian atmosphere. Analysis of the CO$_2$ density data from the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer instrument (NGIMS) on board…
We apply a model for sand dunes to calculate formation of dunes on Mars under the present Martian atmospheric conditions. We find that different dune shapes as those imaged by Mars Global Surveyor could have been formed by the action of…
Airborne dust is the main climatic agent in the Martian environment. Local dust storms play a key role in the dust cycle; yet their life cycle is poorly known. Here we use mesoscale modeling that includes the transport of radiatively active…