Dust storm statistics based on the EMM camera EXI for a complete Martian Year period

Abstract: The Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) onboard EMM is a multi-wavelength double lens camera suitable for observing the Martian lower atmospheric phenomena such as dust storms [3, 5]. The spacecraft’s unique orbit allows the EXI camera a full disk view of Mars at a time step of hours or less through its visible and UV channels (at ~2-4 km per pixel resolution). Therefore, we have used these unprecedented observations to characterize the dust storms for a one Martian-year period [4, 6]. Our dust storm research is directly aligned with the EMM science objective on the lower atmosphere and also with the objective of correlating the lower and upper atmosphere [1, 2]. In this study, we have prepared a one Martian year of dust storm database from EMM-EXI images. The dust storm database includes the start and end time of dust storms, their area, and the centroid latitude and longitude. Here, we also focused on characterizing the dust storms at a sub-daily time scale (which has not been emphasized before) by tracking their evolution at multiple local times. In addition, we consider the origination region, the pathway, and the morphological characteristics of dust storms. Our presentation includes accompanying simulations by a planetary climate model.

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