2022 July 12

Mars Opposition Blog 2022 July 12

Richard McKim

The number of observers continues to slowly increase, but temporal and longitudinal coverage by our team remain inadequate. An updated list of (32) observers is to be found below.

The regional storm reported on May 25 (announced by the Director on the BAA Forum the following day) lasted only a few days beyond the previous update.

The recessing SPC contains a number of seasonal rifts and bright patches. The rift near longitude 60 degrees has been observed.

Separation of Novus Mons (the ‘Mitchell Mountains’) has again occurred on time, as far as could be judged upon the small disk. Images by C.Foster (S.Africa) show it separated from June 2 onwards, when he caught it upon the (morning) limb: one of his results (June 26) is posted here. Separation is better judged at the terminator, but we had no observations of the (evening) terminator at the critical time. On June 29 J.Sussenbach (Netherlands) drew attention to the odd appearance of the W. end of Novus Mons, the latter feature being drawn out into a streak, suggestive of a banner cloud effect but probably showing dust-lifting, and this was also shown upon images from Japan (posted at the ALPO Japan website) a few days earlier. At a different longitude there has been clear evidence of dust activity near the cap: witness the late June images by T.Kumamori (Japan) which show a bright yellowish patch whose W. end is drawn out into a streak. Herewith images by Sussenbach (June 29), Kumamori (June 30) and J-J.Poupeau (July 8).

As I finish this note, an image by J.Willinghan (USA) shows the latter dust activity extending round to the longitude of Hellas. Another BAA Forum post was made today to draw the attention of observers to these polar dust storms.

A collection of images of the approaching planet (2022-March-May) by M.Lonsdale (Australia) is also posted this time.

Our contributors:

Richard McKim, Director

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