A new image shows the early stages of the Martian dust storm

Time on Earth can be extreme and downright impressive at times, but Mars has probably beaten us. The season of annual storms on Mars does not include torrential rains, but dust storms can completely encircle the planet. The current storm of Mars has caused one of these monster storms, but they all start as small waves of dust in the fine Martian atmosphere. The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released a start-of-year picture illustrating the early stages of a Martian dust storm.

Mars has a thin atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide. The planet has seasons, not unlike the Earth, which expose the ice caps to more solar energy. As a result, the atmosphere becomes thicker and more capable of sweeping away Martian fines. This is what happens in the image above, which is the beginning of a big dust storm near the northern polar region of the planet.

The image comes from the Mars Express orbiter of ESA, which has been observing Mars for nearly 15 years. The probe has been so successful that it is almost easy to forget the loss of the Beagle 2 LG from the same mission. Scientists used the satellite's high resolution stereoscopic camera (HRSC) to capture this wavefront image in the Utopia Planitia region in April 2018.

This storm set off early in the storm season for March, and any other year, it would be considered rather big. Several weeks later, the current storm began southwest in the Terra region of Arabia. This storm is currently covering the entire planet, which could spell disaster for the opportunistic little rover. NASA says that Opportunity went into security mode a few weeks ago, as light levels dwindled and the robot could not charge its batteries.

Curiosity photo of the same hole before the storm and after the storm, showing how much light is blocked by the dust storms on Mars.

Images like the one captured by Mars Express could help scientists understand Martian time. The feedback loop that creates these giant dust storms every few years is still poorly understood. Some, like the Utopia Planitia storm, are dissipating after reaching the size of a small US state. Others, like the Arabia Terra storm, extend to cover the entire surface. If humankind intends to establish a permanent presence on Mars someday, knowing how to predict and mitigate Martian dust storms will be vital.