Mars Wind Currents Reveal a Surprising Feature

  • Released Thursday, December 12th, 2019
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:45PM
  • ID: 13485

MAVEN is the first spacecraft specifically designed to study the Mars upper atmosphere, in order to better understand the evolution of its climate. Now, scientists have analyzed several years of data from MAVEN’s NGIMS instrument and produced the first map of wind currents in the Martian thermosphere (a layer of the upper atmosphere). This map led to an unexpected and surprising discovery – disturbances in high-altitude wind currents on Mars are caused by terrain features such as mountains and valleys on the planet’s surface.

For More Information

See NASA.gov



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NASA/Goddard/MAVEN/CU Boulder/University of Michigan


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