Hope Probe uncovers new scientific observations of the Red Planet

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Emirates Mars Mission ‘Hope Probe’ revealed the sixth batch of data and high-resolution observations on Mars’ atmosphere and the dust movement on the planet. The data was captured by the Probe's high-performance measurement instruments between June 1 and August 31, 2022.

Eng. Zakareyya Al Shamsi, Project Director of Emirates Mars Mission, said: “Hope Probe’s data was key in providing a deeper understanding to the climate and atmosphere dynamics on Mars and provided the global scientific community with new observations, including the dust movement on the planet. Over the past two years, which equal one year on Mars, the Hope Probe was able to study and map the entire planet's atmosphere, and provide unprecedented information, which led to a deeper understanding of Mars.”

The data release includes nominal observations captured by the Probe’s Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS), and the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI). In addition, EXI captured high resolution images of high dust movement on Mars, on 6 June, 13 June, 22 June, 27 June, 13 July, 22 July, and 12 August, 2022. A series of EXI colour composites taken over about six hours on the 24th of September revealed a massive dust storm and dense fog covering Valles Marineris and the surrounding areas from early morning hours until noon, as well as the rapid evolution of the storm.