MOC observations of the 2001 Mars planet-encircling dust storm

Abstract From 15 September 1997 through 21 January 2006, only a single planet-encircling martian dust storm was observed by MGS-MOC. The onset of the storm occurred on 26 June 2001 ( L s = 184.7 ° ), earliest recorded to date. It was initiated in the southern mid-to-low latitudes by a series of local dust storm pulses that developed along the seasonal cap edge in Malea and in Hellas basin ( L s = 176.2 ° – 184.4 ° ) . The initial expansion of the storm, though asymmetric, was very rapid in all directions (3–32 m s−1). The main direction of propagation, however, was to the east, with the storm becoming planet encircling in the southern hemisphere on L s = 192.3 ° . Several distinct centers of active dust lifting were associated with the storm, with the longest persisting for 86 sols (Syria–Claritas). These regional storms helped generate and sustain a dust cloud (“haze”), which reached an altitude of about 60 km and a peak opacity of τ dust ∼ 5.0 . By L s = 197.0 ° , the cloud had encircled the entire planet between 59.0° S and 60.0° N, obscuring all but the largest volcanoes. The decay phase began around L s ∼ 200.4 ° with atmospheric dust concentrations returning to nominal seasonal low-levels at L s ∼ 304.0 ° . Exponential decay time constants ranged from 30–117 sols. The storm caused substantial regional albedo changes (darkening and brightening) as a result of the redistribution (removal and deposition) of a thin veneer of surface dust at least 0.1–11.1 μm thick. It also caused changes in meteorological phenomena (i.e., dust storms, dust devils, clouds, recession of the polar caps, and possibly surface temperatures) that persisted for just a few weeks to more than a single Mars year. The redistribution of dust by large annual regional storms might help explain the long period (∼30 years) between the largest planet-encircling dust storms events.

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