NASA recently used the powerful High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to capture a breathtaking image of a dust devil passing through Syria Planum on Mars. A unique aspect of dust devils is that their shadows can be used to predict their estimated heights, reaching up to 20 km (12 miles) into the Martian sky. Studying dust devils on Mars is a regular occurrence for the scientific community and could help scientists better understand processes on the surface of other planets. But since the atmospheric pressure on Mars is only a fraction of that on Earth, what processes are responsible for their formation?

“We think it looks like Earth,” Universe Today tells us Dr. Shane Byrne, associate professor and deputy director of the Lunar-Planet Laboratory at the University of Arizona and assistant principal investigator of HiRISE. “Dust devils feed mainly on solar energy. The Earth warms up so the air starts to rise in columns. If the column rotates, it can contract and spin faster. As long as there is warm air at the bottom, the dust devil can survive. If the dust devil stops moving or moves on colder ground, it will dissipate. Dusty regions on Mars can have a very hot surface during the day, so they are suitable places for dust devils to form.”

As noted, scientists regularly study dust devils on Mars, and Syria Planum isn’t the only place on the Red Planet where HiRISE has observed them. Other locations include Amazonis Planitia, the dune fields in the southern latitudes, the Chasma Ganges (Valles Marineris) and the Nili Fossae. Martian dust devils not only reach several kilometers into the sky, but are also known to leave marks and streaks on the Martian surface, as observed at the Nili Fossae. These tracks are helping scientists not only learn more about dust devils, but also about dust storms on Mars. This is because dust storms erase old dust trails, allowing new ones to be created, allowing scientists to monitor the effectiveness of both processes.

A research geologist at the US Geological Survey’s Center for Astrogeology Science, Dr. “Dust devils are important because they contribute to the ground level of dust in the Martian atmosphere, which is a major driver of weather and atmospheric warming,” said Colin Dundas. -Author HiRISE researcher. tells Universe Today . “They also alter the surface and can clean dust off the solar panels of spacecraft like the Mars Exploration Rovers.”

This cleaning of solar panels became common during the Spirit and Opportunity (Oppy) rover missions, each originally designed to last only 90 sols (92.5 Earth days), but lasting 2,695 Earth days and 5,498 Earth days, respectively. In addition to the reliable machines, Spirit and Oppa also got lucky with the dust devils cleaning their solar arrays; In addition to the free cleanup, both rovers captured images of “mini Martian hurricanes” periodically crisscrossing the landscape. Recently, NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded the sounds of a Martian dust devil in Crater Lake.

While Earth and Mars share similar dust demon characteristics, the major difference between the two planets is their tilt, also known as axial tilt, which is the angle between the planet’s rotational axis and its orbital axis. Planetary objects are almost never perfectly vertical and rotate at an angle that can vary from thousands to millions of years, often over long geological time periods.