Blustery Weather Erases Perseverance Rover's Tracks on Mars | NASA/JPL/AGU

Blustery Weather Erases Perseverance Rover's Tracks on Mars | NASA/JPL/AGU

NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover experienced a large storm in Jezero crater that lasted more than six Martian days (sols) in January 2022. The rover's instruments captured data and images of blowing dust and winds erasing rover tracks. The winds increased as the storm approached but were only directly measured until the afternoon of the first sol, when the wind sensor failed during high winds. The winds were powerful enough to blow sand and lift dust around the rover. The rover spotted 21 dust devils and other dust-lifting events near noon of the first sol. The images are the first to catch the heart of a Martian storm in progress.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Source: 

Scientific Paper: "Dust, Sand, and Winds Within an Active Martian Storm in Jezero Crater"

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL100126

Scientific Credits: M. T. Lemmon, M. D. Smith, D. Viudez-Moreiras, M. de la Torre-Juarez, A. Vicente-Retortillo, A. Munguira, A. Sanchez-Lavega, R. Hueso, G. Martinez, B. Chide, R. Sullivan, D. Toledo, L. Tamppari, T. Bertrand, J. F. Bell III, C. Newman, M. Baker, D. Banfield, J. A. Rodriguez-Manfredi, J. N. Maki, V. Apestigue [2022] Geophysical Research Letters

Video Credit: American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: October 12, 2022

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