资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The largest of dust storms on Mars are Global Dust Events (GDE) that affect essentially every aspect of the martian atmosphere, but do not occur in every Mars Year. The Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) globally observed the most recent GDE in 2018 throughout its lifecycle. The event started shortly after the southern spring equinox, with the first MCS signature detected on June 2, 2018 (Ls=186.2°). It grew into a mature global event by the end of June (Ls~198°), with drastic changes to the atmospheric temperature, dust and water ice profiles. It decayed over several months, reaching background conditions around summer solstice in October 2018. The 2018 GDE was very similar to the 2001 event, including the seasonal development and temperatures. GDE appear to be distinct from even the largest regional dust storms. GDE have 50 Pa zonal tropical temperatures >220 K while no regional dust storm exceeds 205 K.