Dust Storm and Jezero Crater: Images acquired January 9, 2022, from the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were combined to create this view showing the presence of a regional dust storm obscuring the location of Perseverance rover and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (white circle).

Flight 19 for NASA’s Ingenuity is scheduled to take place no earlier than Sunday, January 23, 2022.

The atmosphere of Mars is much less dense than Earth’s; however, the Mars climate shares many similarities to Earth: seasons, changing winds, ice clouds, and dust storms, among others.

We are not without assistance from orbital assets, either – both the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) and Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide daily updates on the state of the atmosphere – useful for understanding activity outside of Jezero crater that could impact future weather.

As Mars transitions into autumn, we expect an increase in the amount of dust in the atmosphere globally; levels will remain heightened through winter (this period of the year is referred to as the “dusty season”).

Furthermore, dust in the atmosphere is heated by sunlight and warms the surrounding atmosphere, resulting in a reduction of the already-low-density air in which Ingenuity must fly!

A strong regional dust storm appeared on the first day of the new year, encompassing Jezero crater just as we scheduled Flight 19.

The first signs of the approaching dust storm were spotted by Perseverance, which observed increased dust lifting within Jezero crater.

In orbit, MRO captured images of this growing regional dust storm, which showed signs of expansion from the southern hemisphere into the northern hemisphere – potentially towards Jezero crater.

The weather team recommended delaying Flight 19, which was ultimately adopted by the Ingenuity team (Flight 19 originally scheduled for January 5, 2022, or Perseverance mission sol 313).

In the days following the flight delay, the dust storm moved over Jezero crater, and we were able to clearly see its effects in both MEDA data and from orbit (Figure 1).

The dust storm has dissipated, and right now, it’s looking like we’ll fly Ingenuity no earlier than this Sunday, January 23.

January 19, 2022

January 19, 2022

January 19, 2022

January 18, 2022

January 18, 2022