THEMIS monitors dusty Martian atmosphere
Wed Jul 11, 2007 at 13:34 UTC
Scientists at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Center are using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to monitor a large dust storm on the Red Planet.
The dust storm erupted during the last week of June 2007. Beginning in Mars' heavily cratered southern highlands, the storm took roughly a week to grow large enough to encircle the planet. Dust has now drifted into the northern hemisphere as well.
The dust is affecting operations for all five spacecraft operating at Mars. The fleet includes two NASA rovers on the ground (Spirit and Opprtunity), plus three orbiters, two of which belong to NASA (Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) and one to the European Space Agency (Mars Express).
The maps, updated regularly, show the atmosphere's opacity at an infrared wavelength of 9 micrometers.
