On the Martian dust storms

Abstract

A short review is given of the observational data on the great Martian dust storms. It is noted that these storms are observed at the time of the great oppositions, when Mars is at its perihelion. It is then late spring-early summer in the Southern Hemisphere and the insolation is a maximum. Intense storms were observed during the 1892, 1924, 1941, 1956 and 1971 oppositions, but not in 1909 or 1939. These storms were of various duration and intensity which points out the importance of local time and space meteorological conditions at the moment of storm origin. Storm generation is caused by local conditions, but the fact that they frequently reach global scale implies that there are some feedback processes favoring the global spread of the dust. Possible such processes are described qualitatively together with the causes of storm declines. Those problems of Martian meteorology and micrometeorology are discussed which have to be studied for a better understanding of the generation, development and decay of a dust storm.