Spatial Sensings: The Devil Is In The Details…

This high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet — in other words, Martian dust devils.


Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers. (Credit: NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona)