Mars is a very dry and dusty. Storms sometimes cover the entire planet, and the orbiters see resistant layers of dust reach great heights (30-50 km above the surface). The mechanism recent phenomenon remains unclear.

Pictures of Mars, executed by the Mars Global Surveyor before, during and after jet of dust storms.

Model high resolution based on the data of the instrument OMEGA, located on the satellite of Mars Express, helped to figure out how dense spherical dust pocket storms may become hot in the sun, making quick warmer surrounding atmosphere. Because hot air rises, these sites fired upwards, like the start of a rocket. Hence the name of this kind of vertical transport - reactive dust storms", coined by Aymeric Спиг? and his colleagues from the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (France).

Height of 30-40 km dust reaches for a few hours, developing speed over 10 m/S. This is much faster than typical speed convection (0.1 m/s) during ordinary storm. Well, since dust particles RUB against each other, "jet storm" can theoretically generate fantastic lightning.

On Earth it was possible mainly due to the fact that the Martian atmosphere is about a hundred times thinner than our, that is, absorbing sunlight, local dust heats up faster and more efficiently radiate. But an analogue still there: large concentrations of droplets of water in grey storm-thunderclouds release of latent heat, causing strong vertical movement and forming a huge, high education, which are called less of rain clouds.

The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Prepared according to Wired.