What type of weather is there on Mars and how does it affect sending landing vehicles to Mars?
Chris McDowell Intermediate High School Millcreek School District Erie, PA ANSWER: Dear Chris, This is a great question. There is a lot of weather on Mars! I don’t know if you’ve heard of the dust storms that happen on Mars, but they are the most obvious form of weather. These storms happen when it is summer at the south pole. The air gets warm in the summer sun and then the wind gets strong enough to pick up dust. The dust is even warmer than the air, and when blown up into the atmosphere it heats the air up even more. This process can sometimes build up into global scale storms. Dust in the air hides the surface so we’ve been able to observe these dust storms for years with telescopic observations, but this last season we observed one up close and personal with a satellite in Mars orbit. There are other forms of weather such as clouds, fog, dust devils, and high winds. Winds near the polar caps are especially strong. The weather affects the design of landers, where we can land vehicl
