Mars’ Double Storm Problem

The 2018 Martian dust storm spreads across the planet's surface, as seen by the Mars Colour Imager aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

A new study presented at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting suggests that solar storms may warm the Martian lower atmosphere, but only when they strike during a major Martian dust storm. The discovery was accidental, emerging from a search for a different effect entirely, and hints that the weather system on Mars may be more tangled and interconnected than scientists previously assumed.

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