We are actually there. Nili Planum. The outer edge of Syrtis Major, that dark “peninsula” one sees even through backyard telescopes, a big part of all those studies that people like Percival Lowell or Schiaparelli did, when the dreamer types were still looking for vegetation and canals. We’ve never known anything like this on Mars, even after decades of rovers exploring the planet.
It might be nice if we could actually see it!
We are now weeks into the springtime, but this muddy winter gloom just goes on and on and on. And there is so much to see here!
Ha, I wish it was just a day.
Adding to what Paul Hammond wrote, Perseverance, the rover itself, has not been forced to stop yet for bad visibility. The storms have never gotten that bad here in Jezero since this mission started 2+ Martian years ago, and we haven’t seen a really bad “global” storm since that 2018 one. Unfortunately, even smaller Martian storms can lift the dust so damned high in the atmosphere that it takes weeks or even months to fall out, and the winter season is known to be dusty, so… we’re stuck with this scenery-killing haze for a while.
Oh wow. Thanks for the conetxt. I think it’s pretty crazy to think that it can take months for the dust to settle.