On Earth, the water cycle is a dominant climate force. On Mars, it’s the dust.
dust
Posted inFeatures
Africa’s Earth, Wind, and Fire Keep the Amazon Green
Jet streams sprinkle North African dust over the Amazon, providing the rain forest with much needed nutrients. Changing wind patterns and increasing smoke may shift the system.
Posted inNews
Iodine-Laden Desert Dust Is Eating at Ozone Pollution
In a happy accident, scientists found a potential solution to an atmospheric chemistry mystery. Their findings could be a missing piece in the iodine cycle and in atmospheric models.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Rethinking How Valley Fever Spreads
Scientists have long assumed that dust storms lead to infections with the desert soil fungus Coccidioides, but new evidence suggests otherwise.
Posted inScience Updates
Planetary Dunes Tell of Otherworldly Winds
On Earth and throughout our solar system, ripples and dunes in sand and dust offer insights into how winds blow, liquid currents flow, and solid particles fly and bounce over the terrain.
Posted inNews
Settlement of Rapa Nui May Have Been Doomed by a Dearth of Dust
Rapa Nui and Hawai‘i offer a tale of two island settlements: Hawai‘i was close enough to Asia for continental dust to help replenish soil nutrients depleted by agriculture. Rapa Nui wasn’t.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Seasonality in Saharan Dust Across the Atlantic Ocean
The first time series of bi-weekly dust concentrations measured in-situ across the remote Atlantic Ocean.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
After the Dust Cleared: New Clue on Mars’ Recurring Slope Lineae
An imaging campaign after the 2018 planet-encircling dust storm on Mars revealed a significant increase in detections of enigmatic recurring slope lineae and new insights into how they might form.
Posted inNews
Dust on the Wind
A new study confirms that an important wind system is shifting due to climate change.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Martian Dust Activities Induce Electrochemistry
Amorphous materials generated from sulfur and chloride salts by electrostatic discharge in a Mars chamber suggest widespread electrical processes during dust activities.