Planet Mars: Dust Storm in South Polar Region | Europe's Mars Express Orbiter

Planet Mars: Dust Storm in South Polar Region | Europe's Mars Express Orbiter

Dust storms like this one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise—warming the cold Martian atmosphere. A fleet of orbiting spacecraft monitor Martian dust storms. They serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to science teams. There is evidence of extensive frozen water in Mars' south polar region. This polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the entire planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. The Mars Express orbiter's radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary that is as deep as 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) below the surface.

"The south polar layered deposits of Mars cover an area bigger than Texas. The amount of water they contain has been estimated before, but never with the level of confidence this radar makes possible," said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena California.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express Mission (2003-2026) was launched on June 2, 2003, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket with a Fregat upper stage. In addition to being Europe’s first mission to Mars, Mars Express is the first fully European mission to any planet. The orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004, namely, high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium. Due to the valuable science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted several mission extensions.

Mission: ESA Mars Express
Orbit: 23290
Date: 2022-06-09T07:59:18.759Z

Instrument: High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)

Image created processing data from: psa.esa.int

Raw Data:
HN290_0009_ND4
HN290_0009_GR4
HN290_0009_BL4

Credits: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC
Release Date: Aug. 3, 2026

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