Brian Jackson

Associate Professor of Physics at Boise State University

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Mars 2020 Dust Devils and Vortices

Posted by admin on June 9, 2022
Posted in: Brian's Presentations, Research. Tagged: dust devils, Mars.

Brian Jackson’s Press Conference Presentation

Contact Info

  • Scientist: Prof. Brian Jackson – bjackson@boisestate.edu – @decaelus – Don’t call my office.
  • Boise State Press Officer: Brianne Phillips – briannephillips@boisestate.edu
Ash devil near Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIWWeARqOj0.

Summary

An key source of dust, dust devils help drive weather and climate on Mars. With a sophisticated suite of meteorological instruments, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover can detect when a dust devil passes nearby — the instruments can see the pressure and dust perturbations from the dust devils. (Wind data were not available by the time of our work, so we didn’t include any — oh, well, next time.)

(a) The pressure perturbation from passage of a dust devil near Mars 2020. (b) The dustiness of the vortex – Mars 2020 has several dust sensors, and depending on how the dust devil blows over the rover, some of them will see a dust shadow (down dip) and some will see reflected light (up blip). From https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac4586.

In a two new studies, my research group used data from Mars 2020 to look for passing dust devils and spotted almost 1000 encounters over the missions first 178 days. We confirmed previous weather predictions that Mars 2020 would see more than other recent missions, including InSight and Curiosity. We also found out that there were lots of whirlwinds that passed by Mars 2020 that actually didn’t raise any dust — only about a quarter of whirlwinds showed any signs of dust-lifting.

These kinds of studies are important for understanding the martian dust cycle and the contribution from dust devils. Scientists know Mars’ dust cycle strongly affects climate, and increases in atmospheric dust increase the rate of water loss into space. Martian dust may even be toxic, so dust devils could pose a big hazard for humans on Mars.

Research Publications

  • Jackson, B. (2022) “Estimating the Heights of Martian Vortices from Mars 2020 MEDA Data.” Planetary Science Journal.
  • Jackson, B. (2022) “Vortices and Dust Devils as Observed by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer Instruments on Board the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.” Planetary Science Journal.

Jackson’s AAS Science Presentation

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    Brian Jackson
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