Traces of "dust devils" found on Mars

Photo "dust devils" made over the Martian plain Argyre and Hooke crater on February 1, 2021. The CaSSIS camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) took detailed images, in which experts then highlighted the traces of vortices in blue.

The landscape of the Argyr Plain is a flat area with chaotic depressions and groups of rocks of various sizes and shapes, scattered at a great distance from each other. Conical mounds, ledges, flat-topped hills, and ridges define the air's paths over the surface.

When warm air, along with solid particles, quickly rises into the colder layers of the atmosphere, a strong wind is created, and footprints are left on the surface of Mars. The tracing lines in the photo make it clear that in this case the wind was blowing from north to south.

High resolution photo:

The TGO orbiter arrived on Mars in 2016 as part of a joint mission between Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA). Since 2018, he has been collecting information about the Martian atmosphere and landscapes. Together with TGO, the Schiaparelli module was sent to Mars, but it crashed on landing.