Title: Chasing the devil – what do dust devils on Earth tell us about Mars?
Date: 31 October 2017
Time: 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET
URL: https://zoom.us/j/113200977
Hosted by NUCLIO, Europlanet’s October 2017 webinar will discuss how Dr Jan Raack chased dust devils on Earth to understand Mars.
When it comes to planetary science, people often think about sophisticated laboratory experiments, complicated remote sensing analysis from space missions, and/or numerical calculations/modelling. But there is another side of planetary science sometimes forgotten by the majority: terrestrial investigations in the field – tangible work in interesting harsh regions on Earth! This work is absolutely mandatory for our understanding of processes happen on other planetary bodies, and also for laboratory experiments, remote sensing analysis, and numerical modelling.
Dr Raack will present some interesting field campaigns to China and Morocco which he has carried out together with a colleague, to give insights into the work of a planetologist on Earth and to tell you why are the results so important for planetary science (Mars in particular). During their field campaigns, they investigated dust devils, which are small whirlwinds common on Earth as well as on Mars. During the webinar, he will not only present the scientific results they have gained from the field campaigns (about their erosional capacity, their internal structure, and their meteorological properties), but give a ‘bigger picture’ of how field campaigns can look like, what for (sometimes self-made and unusual) instruments we have used, and what these investigations tell us about dust devils on Mars.
