dust devils

All posts tagged dust devils

A Multi-Year Dust Devil Vortex Survey Using an Automated Search of Pressure Time-Series

Posted by admin on December 17, 2025
Posted in: Research. Tagged: .
Pressure variations (in hectoPascal, hPa) vs. local time for one dust devil pressure dip. The blue curve shows our model fit.
Pressure variations (in hectoPascal, hPa) vs. local time for one dust devil pressure dip. The blue curve shows our model fit.

Dust devils occur in arid climates on the Earth and ubiquitously on Mars. Martian dust devils have been studied with orbiting and landed spacecraft, while most studies of terrestrial dust devils have involved manned monitoring of field sites, which can be costly both in time and personnel. As an alternative approach, my colleague Ralph Lorenz and I performed a multi-year in-situ survey of terrestrial dust devils using pressure loggers deployed at El Dorado Playa in Nevada, USA, a site known for dust devil activity.

When a dust devil passed over our pressure sensors, it appeared as a pressure dip in the time series, as illustrated in the figure. By modeling these signals, we learned a lot of about dust devils. For instance, in spite of expectations, we found signals that looked a lot like dust devils that occurred at night and even in the winter. So do dust devils happen year-round, day and night? More work will help us figure it out.

Related Publications

  • Jackson & Lorenz (2015) “A Multi-Year Dust Devil Vortex Survey Using an Automated Search of Pressure” JGR–Planets.

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.

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

Mars 2020 Dust Devils and Vortices

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

Brian Jackson’s Press Conference Presentation

Contact Info

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