Above: Artist's impression of a large dust devil approaching a lander on the surface of Mars.
It has been known since the Viking program of the mid-1970s that the Martian atmosphere is subject to dust devil activity, and indeed a profuse number of such events has been observed by the Mars Global Surveyor. The radically different conditions prevailing on Mars mean that dust devils there can be spectacular in scale and dwarf their terrestrial counterparts. They have consequently attracted the attention not only of the scientific community, but also those whose mission it is to ensure the success of landed probes sent to Mars. For this reason, NASA supported a multi-institutional study led by the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory to ascertain the optimum combination of measurements and instrumentation which would have the greatest impact on dust devil research at Mars.
Above: Dust devil encountered near Eloy, Ariz. Note the internal structure visible within the dust column.
This study was conducted by deploying an analogous array of instruments against dust devil targets here on Earth. The first such field experiment was carried out in early June, 2001, at a rural site near Eloy, Arizona and involved a static array of remote sensing equipment, accompanied by an instrumented vehicle outfitted with in situ wind, temperature, and pressure sensors which was used to intercept and penetrate numerous dust devils:
References
D. M. Tratt, M. H. Hecht, D. C. Catling, E. C. Samulon, and P. H. Smith: In situ measurement of dust devil dynamics: Toward a strategy for Mars. J. Geophys. Res., 108(E11), 5116, doi:10.1029/2003JE002161, 2003.