Marching Martian Dust Devils | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Marching Martian Dust Devils | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

On an early fall afternoon in Ganges Chasma (Valles Marineris), we managed to capture a cluster of 8 dust devils, five of them in the enhanced color strip. They are together on a dark sandy surface that tilts slightly to the north, towards the Sun. These dust devils were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument. 

Dust devils are whirlwinds that pick up the light colored dust on the surface as they move around in odd patterns. The lines visible on the dunes are the dark sand left behind when the surface layer of dust has been removed. 

Note: Enhanced color images are 1 km across.

Malin Space Science Systems built the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), Context Camera (CTX) systems for MRO.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Narration: Tre Gibbs

Duration: 1 minute, 16 seconds

Release Date: November 4, 2015

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