Solar panel clearing events, dust devil tracks, and in-situ vortex detections on Mars

Abstract

<p class="first" id="P1">Spirit rover solar array data, which if publicly-archived would provide a useful window on Mars meteorology, shows dust-clearing events coinciding with the onset of dust devil season in three Mars years. The recurrence interval of 100–700 days is consistent with the extrapolation of Pathfinder and Phoenix vortex encounters indicated by pressure drops of ~6–40 Pa (similar to laboratory measurements of dust lifting threshold) and with observed areas and rates of generation of dust devil tracks on Mars. </p>