August 21, 2018
There’s a lot we don’t understand about the sediment on Mars. Water, wind, ice, changing temperatures, and volcanic eruptions can all break rocks into grains small enough for the wind to transport. The smallest grains are lofted by the wind, […]
August 13, 2018
Mars has been dusty, and that’s affecting the quality of HiRISE images (just look at the recent images in the catalog and you’ll see they’re not that great). That’s made it hard for me to choose a good one for […]
August 2, 2018
The HiRISE camera has a website called HiWish that lets anybody (yes, even you!) make image requests. That’s right, you can choose any spot on Mars that HiRISE can see, pick any season (or let them pick for you if […]
July 16, 2018
In many areas on Earth that get winter snow, spring thaw is a messy time. Frozen ground turns to mud, and there may be runoff everywhere from melting snow and spring rain. Or if you live in a place that […]
July 8, 2018
It’s July, and I’ve had a busy summer so far. This is my first post in a few weeks – I’ve been out at various meetings, and last week I spent with my family on vacation. The one week of […]
May 30, 2018
There are a lot of dune fields on Mars. Over the last ten years I’ve been part of a group that’s mapped out the big dark dunes on the planet to see where they form, and to understand the sedimentary […]
May 9, 2018
Here’s a grand dune, making its stately way northward under winds blowing mainly from the south-southeast (bottom to top), with a secondary wind blowing from the southwest (lower left to upper right). There are two rippled and sharp-crested slip faces […]
April 30, 2018
Some windblown dunes on Mars are just beyond words. Take these beasts in this 0.95×0.95 km (0.59×0.59 mi) scene: These are a peculiar type of bedform called a transverse aeolian ridge, or TAR for short, with a spacing of about […]
April 23, 2018
The wind on Mars is an artist, or at least it tries really hard to be one. It flutters up and down mountains, winding along valleys, dragging its wings in the sand and building up really amazing structures that could […]