Mars’ corduory

A Piece of Mars: The wind on Mars likes to make textiles (unfortunately the term geotextiles is already taken for other purposes). This 1×0.6 km (0.62×0.37 mi) scene shows two different sets of ripples. The larger set has straight to wavy crests, and they’re ~18 m (~59 ft) apart, which is pretty big for ripples (really they’re TARs). Inbetween those (click on the picture so you can see them) are small ~2 m (~6.5 ft) ripples that make Mars look like it’s made of kahki corduroy (which is a thing but it’s not on trend, so Mars could stand to catch up a little). What does this all add up to? There are at least two different sets of wind directions, and each probably formed on its own timescale. If we learn how to decipher these, then we could better understand weather patterns on Mars, because ripples like these are pretty common there. (HiRISE ESP_051244_1315, NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona)