Dust Storm May Obscure Mars

If a developing Martian dust storm has its way, amateur astronomers gazing at Mars during late summer’s prime viewing time may be disappointed to look through their telescopes and find a hazy red smudge in place of gaping craters and snowy ice caps.

On July 1, a giant cloud of fine Martian dust spewed out of Hellas Basin -- one of the solar system’s largest impact craters -- and quickly began to spread, in what may be a repeat of a storm that encircled the Red Planet in 2001.

“When a global dust storm is occurring on Mars it washes out all the surface features underneath,” said James F. Bell, a Cornell University scientist. “Instead of seeing spectacular details you see a bland and boring red dot in the sky.”

Bell, the scientist in charge of the color camera systems for the NASA rovers that are scheduled to reach Mars in January, compared Hellas Basin to Death Valley -- complete with high pressure, warm temperatures and intense sunlight -- major factors in creating a dust storm.

But the rovers probably will not be affected, said Mark Adler, deputy manager of the missions. The Martian dust storm season peaks at the beginning of September, and global storms last a few months at most.