Wind Engineering and Experimental Aerodynamics
Contact:
WEEA Program
Aerospace Eng. Dept
2271 Howe Hall, Rm 1200
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2271 U.S.A.
Martian Dust Devils
June 20-21, 2005
Lynn Neakrase of Arizona State University's Planetary Geology Group is shown above (left) conducting tests of dust devil threshold wind speeds using the Tornado/Microburst Simulator in the WiST lab. The photo on the right shows Neakrase and ISU Aerospace Engineering senior Kevin Houstman readying a bed of fine sand for the test.
The ASU group also conducts such experimental investigations of Martian dust devils using the Arizona State University Vortex Generator in Earth-ambient and Martian-analog pressures, using the Arizona State University Planetary Aeolian facility and the Mars Surface Wind Tunnel facility at NASA Ames Research Center in California. The large size of the ISU tornado simulator allowed researchers to test scales and Reynolds numbers not previously possible.
Dust transport is believed to play an important role in weather patterns on Mars. Since dust devils are one of the primary means of delivering dust from the surface into the atmosphere, gaining an understanding of these phenomena is an important step in understanding the physics of the Martian atmosphere.