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Mars Climate Sounder Observation of Mars' 2018 Global Dust Storm
Author(s) -
Kass D. M.,
Schofield J. T.,
Kleinböhl A.,
McCleese D. J.,
Heavens N. G.,
Shirley J. H.,
Steele L. J.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl083931
Subject(s) - dust storm , mars exploration program , storm , atmosphere of mars , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , atmosphere (unit) , martian , solstice , climatology , geology , astrobiology , meteorology , geography , oceanography , physics , latitude , geodesy
The largest of dust storms on Mars are global dust events (GDEs) that affect essentially every aspect of the Martian atmosphere but do not occur in every Mars year. The Mars Climate Sounder globally observed the most recent GDE in 2018 throughout its lifecycle. The event started shortly after the southern spring equinox, with the first Mars Climate Sounder signature detected on 2 June 2018 (Ls = 186.2°). It grew into a mature global event by the end of June (Ls ~ 198°), with drastic changes to the atmospheric temperature, dust, and water ice profiles. It decayed over several months, reaching background conditions around southern summer solstice in October 2018. The 2018 GDE was very similar to the 2001 event, including the seasonal development and temperatures. GDEs appear to be distinct from even the largest regional dust storms. GDEs have 50‐Pa zonal tropical temperatures >220 K while no regional dust storm exceeds 205 K.