Dust Storm |
Dust Storm |
Oct 28 2005, 09:19 PM
Post
#31
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 713 Joined: 30-March 05 Member No.: 223 |
QUOTE (slinted @ Oct 28 2005, 01:09 PM) There is fresh activity being seen VERY close to Opportunity, as visible in some of the imaging done earlier today. OMG this is outstanding spectacular ! from the estimated spreading rate at 35mph and the close location to Opportunity it must be visibily already in the current images (at least as substantial darkening of the sky) Too bad that the exploratorium site is down right now So what does this storm mean for the rover ? hopefully the degradation of solar power will be not too bad to kill the rover eventually.. on the other hand: if Oppy survives this, then chances are that the panel are more clean than before due to the dust cleaning effects of the high wind speeds... This is going to become a really exciting development |
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 09:24 PM
Post
#32
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
QUOTE (Sunspot @ Oct 28 2005, 04:29 AM) I'm not sure how "tall" a martian dust storm is. A 100 meter object would be just visible from about 20 km away. But, given that the object is dust, and the background is the already-dusty sky of Mars, it might have to be a lot closer to be visible. The easiest way to detect it would be to notice the setting sun passing into the storm. Given the speed at which the storm is traveling, it could arrive before any image seeing it in the distance is taken -- unless an imaging campaign devoted to this is undertaken. |
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 09:26 PM
Post
#33
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
"Opportunity has seen some signs of the dust storm, which is apparently nearby.
Opportunity showed elevated dust levels, which were measured at an optical depth of about 1.4. The largest dust storm experienced by the rover occurred in June and rated an optical depth of about 2. For comparison, a smoggy day in Los Angeles would rate an optical depth of about 1.0, and moderate days on Mars are about 0.5 "We started seeing more and more dusting on the solar panels," Mark Lemmon added. "And we have indirect evidence that these storms are windy. We've seen material blown out of the rover tracks over the last two weeks." Meanwhile, Spirit has found some signs of additional atmospheric dust at Gusev Crater. She detected an optical depth of about 0.6" http://space.com/scienceastronomy/051028_mars_storm.html Rakhir |
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 09:37 PM
Post
#34
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 350 Joined: 20-June 04 From: Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Member No.: 86 |
|
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 09:55 PM
Post
#35
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 877 Joined: 7-March 05 From: Switzerland Member No.: 186 |
Mike, you have to start with the link and guidance in my post#26. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=24766
It's also the site where they show the pictures and the animation. -------------------- |
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 09:57 PM
Post
#36
|
|
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 42 Joined: 31-March 05 From: Sofia, Bulgaria Member No.: 224 |
|
|
|
Oct 28 2005, 10:56 PM
Post
#37
|
|
Dublin Correspondent Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 |
Just wondering if the "extraordinary" brightness of this dust\storm\wotsit event is related to opposition surge:
QUOTE On 28 October 09:08 UT and 7 November 04:10 UT Jim Bell (Cornell University) and the Hubble Heritage team will observe Mars. The first date will be near Mars closest approach and the second near Mars opposition. This particular observation will be the closest to zero phase angle ever observed with HST and one of the scientific efforts will be to study the "opposition surge" effect. From Marswatch |
|
|
Oct 29 2005, 01:59 AM
Post
#38
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
On the FwdHazcam and RearHazcam images from Sol 625 I thought that both looked a bit "hazy" with bright shadows.
Fwd HazCam Rear HazCam --Bill -------------------- |
|
|
Oct 29 2005, 03:02 AM
Post
#39
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
QUOTE (Bill Harris @ Oct 28 2005, 08:59 PM) On the FwdHazcam and RearHazcam images from Sol 625 I thought that both looked a bit "hazy" with bright shadows. Fwd HazCam Rear HazCam --Bill However, these pictures were taken three days ago. Now it is sol 628. The Tau would be around 1.4 (like almost sunset) and the worst that Oppy has experienced was around 2.0 on June of last year. After that, the wind will clean again the dust from plan solars and hope it would be even better when it is close to Mogollon rim. Rodolfo |
|
|
Guest_Sunspot_* |
Oct 29 2005, 10:45 AM
Post
#40
|
Guests |
I wish we could get to see some dust storm images from Odyssey, Mars Global Surveyour and Mars Express.
|
|
|
Oct 29 2005, 11:36 AM
Post
#41
|
|
Member Group: Admin Posts: 468 Joined: 11-February 04 From: USA Member No.: 21 |
Dr. Sherrod has captured the storm activity again tonight, to which I've added Opportunity's position.
|
|
|
Oct 29 2005, 02:49 PM
Post
#42
|
|
Dublin Correspondent Group: Admin Posts: 1799 Joined: 28-March 05 From: Celbridge, Ireland Member No.: 220 |
QUOTE (deglr6328 @ Oct 24 2005, 10:31 PM) How frequently do global dust storms occur on Mars? I know there was one in 2001 and one in 1971 but that's all I'm aware of. Surely there must have been many more recorded in the last century. The odds on a major planet encircling storm seem to be around 20% per Martian year or one every decade or so for us Earthlings. The last global storm was in 2001 - heres a nice write up and animation from TES . Previous major storms were seen in 1909, 1924, 1956, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977 (twice) and 1982 although apparently only the 1971 event is considered global in that it obscured the whole planet apart from the tops of the Tharsis peaks. Nice write up here by Jeff Beish There was a fairly significant non planetwide storm in 2003 that was concentrated in Hellas and lasted for most of December 2003. |
|
|
Oct 29 2005, 11:46 PM
Post
#43
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
Could the dust storm be a serious matter for our intrepid explorer? I am assuming that if the dust storm does hit and decrease the solar panel output to below the minimum, Oppy can go into a deep sleep mode and wait the storm out, waking up once the storm clears. And if the solar panels get dusted over, we'll wait for a cleaning event. Or am I too accustomed to Oppy being The Energizer Mars Rover?
--Bill -------------------- |
|
|
Oct 30 2005, 12:41 AM
Post
#44
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (Bill Harris @ Oct 30 2005, 12:46 AM) Could the dust storm be a serious matter for our intrepid explorer? I am assuming that if the dust storm does hit and decrease the solar panel output to below the minimum, Oppy can go into a deep sleep mode and wait the storm out, waking up once the storm clears. And if the solar panels get dusted over, we'll wait for a cleaning event. Or am I too accustomed to Oppy being The Energizer Mars Rover? --Bill Bill: We're talking End Of Mission! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
|
|
|
Oct 30 2005, 01:27 AM
Post
#45
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
That's what I was afraid of...
--Bill -------------------- |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 28th September 2024 - 11:43 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |