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All posts for the month December, 2025

Capturing Devils in the Desert

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , .

Dust devils are low-pressure, small (many to tens of meters) convective vortices powered by surface heating and rendered visible by lofted dust. Dust devils occur ubiquitously on Mars, where they may dominate the supply of atmospheric dust, and since dust contributes significantly to Mars’ atmospheric heat budget, dust devils probably play an important role in its climate. Analog studies of terrestrial devils have provided some insights into dust devil dynamics and properties but have been limited to near-surface (few meters) or relatively high altitude (hundreds of meters) sampling. Automated aerial vehicles or drones, combined with miniature, digital instrumentation, promise a novel and uniquely powerful platform from which to sample dust devils at a wide variety of altitudes. During summer 2017, our group conducted a pilot study using an instrumented quadcopter on an active field site in southeastern Oregon to probe active dust devils. The video above shows one encounter from the perspective of the drone.

The Weather on Distant Worlds

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , .
Simulated clouds rotating in and out of view on a hot Jupiter.

Planetary phase curves (light reflected and emitted by the planet as it orbits its star) can provide insight into atmospheric processes, and the Kepler Mission’s observational baseline spanning hundreds of days for some planets makes its dataset especially well suited to search for phase curve variability, diagnostic of meteorology as advective processes sweep thermal structures and aerosols into and out of view. This project involves analysis of archival Kepler data to understand the weather on these distant worlds.

  • Jackson et al. (2018) – “Searching for Eclipse Variability for Kepler-76 b in the Kepler Dataset” – DPS Presentation
  • Jackson et al. (2019) – “A Search Variability in the Atmosphere of the Hot Jupiter Kepler-76 b” – LPSC Presentation
  • Jackson et al. (2019) – “Variability in the Atmosphere of the Hot Jupiter Kepler-76b” – ApJ article

Dust Devils on Titan

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , , .

Saturn’s moon Titan may host active dust devils, small dust‐laden plumes, which could significantly contribute to transport of dust in that moon’s atmosphere. Although the exact nature of dust on Titan is unclear, previous observations confirm that there is actively blowing dust on that world. If dust devils are active on Titan’s surface, NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission is likely to encounter them, but dust devils on Titan are unlikely to pose a hazard to the mission.

Research Publications

  • Jackson et al. (2020). “Dust Devils on Titan.” JGR: Planets.
  • Jackson et al. (2020). “Dust Devils Throughout the Solar System.” Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conferences 2020.

    Press Coverage
  • “Dust devils may roam hydrocarbon dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan.” AGU Geospace.
  • “Saturn’s massive moon Titan may generate swarms of dust-fueled twisters.” Syfy Wire.
  • “Titan twisters? ‘Dust devils’ may be swirling on Saturn’s largest moon.” Space.com.
  • “The Best Moon in the Solar System May Be More Like Earth Than We Thought.” Popular Mechanics.

Martian Dust Devils and Vortices from the Insight Mission

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , , .
The InSight Mission‘s instrument suite.

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. These instruments have detected small-scale vortices, some of which may be dust devils. Howver, although our analysis shows that InSight encountered more than 900 vortices and collected more than 1000 images of the Martian surface, no active dust devils were imaged. Surveying the available imagery, we placed upper limits on what fraction of vortices carry dust (i.e., how many are bona fide dust devils) and estimate threshold wind speeds for dust lifting. Comparing vortex encounters and parameters with advective wind speeds, we find evidence that high wind speeds at InSight may have suppressed the formation of dust devils, explaining the lack of imaged dust devils.

Research Publications

Martian Dust Devils and Vortices from Mars 2020 Perseverance

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , , , .
Dust devil slithering along the martian surface, as seen by he Curiosity rover. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil_tracks.

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 their dust-lifting capacities. However, each landing site and observational season exhibits unique meteorological properties that shape dust devil activity and help illuminate their dependence on ambient conditions.

Data from the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument suite onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover shows signals of passing vortices and dust devils. Over the mission’s first 180 sols, the rover encountered almost 1000 vortices, perhaps one quarter of which showed signs of dust-lofting. Combining our measurements of their meteorological signals with simple thermodynamic models, we estimates how tall the vortices were, and some reached as high as 2 km into the dusty martian sky.

These kinds of estimates are key for understanding how dust devils help to maintain the perpetual background of atmospheric dust on Mars, which drives martian climate and water loss to space.

Research Publications

  • Jackson, B. (2022) “Estimating the Heights of Martian Vortices from Mars 2020 MEDA Data.” in review with 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.

Press

Searching for Tidally Decaying Exoplanets

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , , .
Artist’s conception of a hot Jupiter shedding mass.

Tidal interactions between short-period exoplanets and their host stars drive orbital decay and have likely led to engulfment of planets by their stars. Precise transit timing surveys, with baselines now spanning decades for some planets, are directly detecting orbital decay for a handful of planets, with corroboration for planetary engulfment coming from independent lines of evidence. The large number of possible targets (hundreds of planets) means it is not feasible to continually observe all planets that might exhibit detectable tidal decay. For this work, we explored the properties of an exoplanet system that can maximize the likelihood for observing tidally driven transit timing variations.

Research Publications

  • Jackson et al. (2023) “Metrics for Optimizing Searches for Tidally Decaying Exoplanets.” Astronomical Journal.

Measuring the Winds on Mars via Helicopter

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: , .
The first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.

We used attitude data from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter to estimate wind speeds and directions at altitudes between 3 and 24 m, the first time winds at such altitudes have been probed on Mars. We compared our estimates to wind data from the meteorology package MEDA on board the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and to predictions from meteorological models. Wind directions inferred from Ingenuity data agreed with the directions measured by MEDA, when the latter were available, but deviated from model-predicted directions by as much as 180° in some cases. The inferred wind speeds are often much higher than expected. The work here provides a foundation for exploration of planetary boundary layers using drones and suggests important future avenues for research and development

Research Publications

Press