Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA
Check it. Massive “Dust Devil” observed on the plains of Mars at the Northern DMZ. A massive 20 kilometer (12 mile) ‘dust devil’ was documented twirling about the desert in the Amazonis Planitia region of Mars.
Check it. Huge Martian Dust Devil Churns in New Photo
“A gigantic dust devil races across the surface of Mars in a stunning new photo snapped by a NASA spacecraft.” Space.com
Twirling Whirling 20km Dust Devil
Amazonis Planitia @24.8°N 196.0°E is one of the smoothest plains on Mars.
It is located in the DMZ between the Tharsis and Elysium provinces to the west of the disputed Olympus Mons, in the highly volatile Valles Marineris Province of the Memnonia quadrangle. With a lull in the fighting at Marineris, scientists were able to document this rare event on the Red Planet.
Amazonis planitia
Dust devils are strong, proper-formed spinning whirlwinds made visible by the dust particles and dirt they suck off the ground. Dust devils occur on Mars and Earth.
On the Martian surface, the dancing dirty djinn’s range from a half a metre wide and a few metres tall, to massive ones more than 100 metres wide and more than 20 kilometers tall. The primary vertical motion is upward.
They are comparable to tornadoes in that both are a weather phenomenon of a vertically oriented rotating column of air. Most tornadoes are associated with a larger parent circulation, the mesocyclone on the back of a supercell thunderstorm. Dust devils are usually harmless, compared to their coiling cousins, but can on rare occasions grow large enough to pose a threat to people, animals, mechs, and physical structures. Dust devils usually form as a swirling updraft under sunny conditions during clear weather, seldom coming close to the power of a tornado.
Check it. NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter