Mars - 4th August 2020 possibly showing dust evolution at the South Polar Cap (Niall MacNeill)

Mars - 4th August 2020 possibly showing dust evolution at the South Polar Cap

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

On August 4th I imaged Mars over nearly 2.5 hours, making RGB runs of 4 mins per colour channel. The seeing was excellent at the beginning but deteriorated towards the end. As a result I took the data from the first 1 hr and 50 mins, derotating and integrating the data in 3 parcels, producing images ~ 28 mins apart for a total duration of 56 mins. The quality of all 3 images is pretty good, with the middle image benefiting from more data integration than the first and last ones.

Overall I would say that Mars' atmosphere is clearing, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere and there are less dust clouds than there have been over the weeks when the SPC was in rapid retreat, although some discrete dust clouds remain to the south. Nevertheless there still seems to be quite a murkiness overall, which is affecting the contrast in the images . As a result I have kept the images a bit darker to allow the surface features to be more easily discerned.

Just north of the SPC on the f side of the CM something interesting is happening. There seems to be what could be a plume of cloud emanating from the polar cap. It is a diffuse white patch which is possibly connected to dust clouds blowing up towards Solis Lacus around the limb. The dust clouds are a distinctly lighter colour than the surrounding region. Seen the mouse over for an annotated version indicating these features, which can be seen rotating with the planet in the GIF animation in Version D.

The lighter colour of the Argyre Planitia can be made out, but again there is some obscuration.

The canyons of the Vallis Marineris are lighter coloured along their length suggesting pooling dust, or perhaps just a greater depth of dusty atmosphere there.

To the north Nilokeras and Mare Acidalium can be seen with cloud perched over the latter.

The detached part of the SPC is the famous Mountains of Mitchel.

Final
Original
B
D

B

Description: Annotated to show dust evolving from the SPC

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: A GIF animation of 3 images 28 mins apart for a total capture timeframe of just under an hour.

Uploaded: ...

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