Mars will face a huge dust storm in the coming months, according to a new study. The best part is that dust storms become more predictable, said the study, provided the next dust storm follows the pattern already evident from past data.
Such early predictions would help greatly in preempting the damage to robotic rovers traversing the Red Planet and can check the future hazard to astronauts who may be putting up camps on the planet.
Already scientists have traced a pattern in the occurrence of dust storms on the Red Planet. James Shirley, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the global dust storms on Mars are linked to the orbital motion of that planet. The study was published in the journal Icarus.
He also said Mars momentum is influenced by other planets as it orbits the solar system's center of gravity.
Based on previous data, a NASA statement predicted that Mars will "reach the midpoint of its current dust storm season" on Oct. 29.
"Based on the historical pattern we found, we believe it is very likely that a global dust storm will begin within a few weeks or months of this date," Shirley said.
The rise and fall of Mars momentum take place on a cycle of 2.2 years, which is higher than the average Martian year of 1.9 years.
According to Shirley, global dust storms occur when the orbital momentum of Mars goes up. He added that no global dust storm had occurred in years when orbital momentum was declining, especially in the first half of the dust storm season.
Shirley's paper also claimed close similarities between the present conditions in the dust storm season on Mars with those of the past. Now, scientists are watching the current data being collected from the Martian atmosphere to know whether the forecast will be proven right or wrong.
Dust Storm On Mars
On Mars, local dust storms are a common phenomenon. On many occasions, they grow in size to become strong regional systems when Mars gets closer to the sun during the southern spring and summer. Dust storms, in turn, create a haze that obscures the surface features.
The most recent Martian global dust storm happened in 2007, which adversely hit two NASA Mars rovers — Spirit and Opportunity by hurting their solar power availability.
"The global dust storm in 2007 was the first major threat to the rovers since landing," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
All weather reports from Mars are handled by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. They base the data from the Mars Color Imager camera captured from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
According to the latest storm forecast, a series of local southern storms started in late August. Despite developing into a regional dust storm in September, it failed to pick up enough strength to turn into a global dust storm.
