Morning dust events observed around Thaumasia Plateau in the southern hemisphere of Mars
- 1Faculty of Science, Kyoto Sangyo University
Abstract
We investigated the local-time dependence of dust event formation around Thaumasia Plateau of Mars using 3,298 images acquired by the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) from L s = 7° in MY 36 to L s = 43° in MY 37. Through visual inspection of paired images separated by several hours, we determined formation times for small-scale dust events and distinguished them from water ice clouds using 320 nm water ice optical depth retrievals. Dust events occurred throughout the year but exhibited clear seasonal differences in their preferred formation times. During the southern winter, dust events were more likely to form in the afternoon, whereas during the southern spring and summer, several events initiated in the morning, particularly within the mountain ranges surrounding the plateau. Accounting for seasonal variations in observation opportunities, we found that morning dust lifting dominates in the southern spring and summer, while afternoon formation dominates in the southern winter. These results suggest that different mechanisms operate seasonally: morning events may be associated with the breakdown of nocturnal low‑level jets, while topographically driven slope winds also likely enhance dust lifting in the plateau. This study highlights the unique capability of the non-sun-synchronous EMM orbit to constrain Martian dust storm formation timing. Graphical abstract
Related
- Electric Potential Patterns Forecasting in the Southern Hemisphere with Deep Learning Techniques
- Ubiquitous nuclear disks and bars embedded in massive galaxies in the cosmic morning
- Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices in the Martian +E hemisphere downstream of crustal magnetic anomalies
- Recovering the Morning and Evening Limbs of WASP-94Ab from Its Limb-Averaged JWST Transmission Spectrum
- Revisiting the 2014 Camelopardalids Outburst using a Meteor Radar Chain in the Northern Hemisphere
BibTeX
@article{okuno2026morning,
title = {{Morning dust events observed around Thaumasia Plateau in the southern hemisphere of Mars}},
author = {Sho Okuno and Kazunori Ogohara},
journal = {Earth, Planets and Space},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1186/s40623-026-02563-z},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-026-02563-z},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Morning dust events observed around Thaumasia Plateau in the southern hemisphere of Mars
AU - Sho Okuno
AU - Kazunori Ogohara
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
JO - Earth, Planets and Space
DO - 10.1186/s40623-026-02563-z
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-026-02563-z
AB - We investigated the local-time dependence of dust event formation around Thaumasia Plateau of Mars using 3,298 images acquired by the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) from L s = 7° in MY 36 to L s = 43° in MY 37. Through visual inspection of paired images separated by several hours, we determined formation times for small-scale dust events and distinguished them from water ice clouds using 320 nm water ice optical depth retrievals. Dust events occurred throughout the year but exhibited clear seasonal differences in their preferred formation times. During the southern winter, dust events were more likely to form in the afternoon, whereas during the southern spring and summer, several events initiated in the morning, particularly within the mountain ranges surrounding the plateau. Accounting for seasonal variations in observation opportunities, we found that morning dust lifting dominates in the southern spring and summer, while afternoon formation dominates in the southern winter. These results suggest that different mechanisms operate seasonally: morning events may be associated with the breakdown of nocturnal low‑level jets, while topographically driven slope winds also likely enhance dust lifting in the plateau. This study highlights the unique capability of the non-sun-synchronous EMM orbit to constrain Martian dust storm formation timing. Graphical abstract
SN - 1880-5981
SN - 1343-8832
ER -