PrePublication Copy Observed Dust Devil Tracks in the North Polar Region of Mars Drake N, Leslie Tam

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Pre-Publication CopyObserved Dust Devil Tracks
in the North Polar Region of MarsDrake N, Leslie
Tamppari, R.D. Baker 2005

• Nathan Drake
• Austin College Sherman, TX
• Leslie K. Tamppari
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• R. David Baker
• Austin College Sherman, TX

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Phoenix Landing Boxes

• 2007 Phoenix Lander will launch, heading to the
  65-72N latitude band
• Equipped with Surface Stereoscopic Imager,
  Pressure Sensor, and Upward-looking LIDAR

Deal, 2004
phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu, 2005
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Method of Analyzing Images

• All 1,734 MGS MOC-NA images in the 65-72N
  Phoenix latitude band were downloaded from
  http//www.msss.com and cataloged in a created
  database

65.4N, 182.48W M00-01253
67.57N, 57.87W, M22-01024
65.29N, 297.03W E05-03579
70.4N, 310.57W E23-01292
All images msss.com
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Results

• 161 images (10.33) contained Dust Devil tracks
  or Wind Streaks

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Preliminary Conclusions

• This is the first documented work of dust devils
  occurring at such high latitudes
• 161 Images (10.33) contained Dust Devils tracks
  or Wind Streaks
• Equal area coverage of entire latitude band
• Landing Region C has the highest percentage of
  Dust Devil tracks and wind streaks, D the lowest
• Regions of contrasting albedo tend to show more
  dust devils

Future Work

• Measure dust devil track and wind streak
  direction
• Determine if regions of varying albedo have more
  dust devil tracks
• Search for seasonal variance/appearance of dust
  devils tracks and wind streaks
• Check overlapping MOC-NA images

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Acknowledgements

• Leslie Tamppari, Phoenix Project Scientist
• Deborah Bass and Amy Hale
• Bruce Cantor
• Nilton Renno
• SURF Program

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End of Show