Dear Natalia,

The following publications may be helpful:

1- The distribution of dust devil activity on Mars

Article in Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 113(E7) · July 2008

DOI: 10.1029/2007JE002966

Abstract

Martian dust devil activity, inferred from their tracks, is mapped globally and compared to surface and atmospheric properties. Dust devils are estimated to lift 2.3 ± 1 × 1011 kg of dust each year, mostly from two narrow bands near 60°N and 60°S, during their respective spring and summer. Approximately 55% of the dust lifted by dust devils in the northern hemisphere is removed from within 45 and 75°N, while 65% of that lifted in the south is from within 45 and 75°S. The southern band is an order of magnitude more populated with tracks than in the north, likely a result of Mars' orbital eccentricity. The equator is the location of a lesser peak, while few dust devil tracks are found at the poles and middle latitudes. During the fall and winter in both hemispheres, few tracks are observed. Dust devil and track formation does not appear to be controlled significantly by elevation, topographic slope, dust cover, or surface physical properties. Dust devils annually lift approximately half as much material as local and regional dust storms and are therefore significant contributors of dust into the Martian atmosphere.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251435559_The_distribution_of_dust_devil_activity_on_Mars

2- http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/ResourcesNearEarthSpace/resources30.pdf

3-Dust lifting and associated processes in present and past Martian climates

https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2012-03-08/2_mulholland_pdf_18035.pdf

4-Modeling the Martian dust cycle and surface dust reservoirs with the NASA Ames general circulation model

Melinda A. Kahre, James R. Murphy, Robert M. Haberle

Abstract

 We employ the NASA Ames Mars general circulation model (GCM) to investigate the dust lifting mechanisms responsible for the observed Martian dust cycle and the net surface response to the combined influence of dust lifting and deposition. This GCM includes lifting, transport, and deposition of radiatively active dust. Two dust lifting mechanisms are accounted for: wind stress lifting and dust devil lifting. A “baseline” simulation is presented and shown to compare well to available spatial and temporal observations of atmospheric opacity, wind stress dust lifting events, and atmospheric temperatures recorded during a nonglobal dust storm year. Multiple simulations were conducted to explore the model's sensitivity to a wide range of dust lifting parameters (the functional dependence of surface dust flux on wind stress, the wind stress threshold for lifting, etc.) Model results robustly suggest that wind stress lifting produces the peak in atmospheric dust load during southern spring and summer and that dust devils maintain the background haze of atmospheric dust during northern spring and summer. These results are consistent with previously published conclusions. Dust devil and wind stress lifting contribute equally to the simulated total amount of dust lifted annually during nonglobal dust storm years. The simulated spatial pattern of annual net deflation/deposition suggests that the low thermal inertia regions (Tharsis, Arabia, and Elysium) are not currently net dust accumulation regions. This net deflation is the result of dust devil dust lifting, suggesting that dust devils could play an important role in the present-day pattern of surface dust reservoirs.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2005JE002588/full

5-Global distribution of near-surface hydrogen on Mars

W. C. Feldman,1 T. H. Prettyman,1 S. Maurice,2 J. J. Plaut,3 D. L. Bish,1 D. T. Vaniman,1

M. T. Mellon,4 A. E. Metzger,3 S. W. Squyres,5 S. Karunatillake,5 W. V. Boynton,6

R. C. Elphic,1 H. O. Funsten,1 D. J. Lawrence,1 and R. L. Tokar1

Received 18 July 2003; revised 1 July 2004; accepted 4 August 2004; published 22 September 2004.

Neutron data observed using the Neutron Spectrometer aboard 2001 Mars Odyssey provide a lower limit to the global inventory of Martian water-equivalent hydrogen. Hydrogen-rich deposits ranging between about 20% and 100% water-equivalent by mass are found poleward of ±50 latitude, and less rich, but significant, deposits are found at near-equatorial latitudes. The equatorial deposits between ±45 latitude range between 2% and 10% water-equivalent hydrogen by mass and reach their maximum in two regions that straddle the 0-km elevation contour. Higher water abundances, up to 11%, are required in subsurface regolith of some equatorial regions if the upper 10 g/cm2 of regolith  is desiccated, as suggested on average by comparison of epithermal and fast neutron data. The hydrogen contents of surface soils in the latitude range between 50 and 80 north and south are equal within data uncertainties. A lower-limit estimate of the global inventory of near surface hydrogen amounts to a global water layer about 14 cm thick if the reservoir sampled from orbit is assumed to be 1 m thick. INDEX TERMS: 5410 Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Composition; 5416 Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Glaciation; 5462 Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Polar regions; 6225 Planetology: Solar System Objects: Mars;

http://geology.indiana.edu/bish/Feldman.pdf

6-Dust at the Martian moons and in the circummartian space

Alexander Zakharov, Mihály Horanyi, Pascal Lee, Olivier Witasse, Fabrice Cipriani

abstract

The paper provides the current understanding of the dust particle dynamics near the surface and in the circummatrian space of the Martian moons based on existing models developed for airless and nonmagnetized bodies. In particular we discuss the response of the regolith of the Martian moons to exposure to radiation, the dynamics of charged dust on their surfaces, their plasma environments, the

models and indirect observations of their putative dust tori. It is concluded that there is a good theoretical understanding of the behavior of the dynamics of dust particles near the moons Phobos and Deimos. Current models predict dust rings near orbits of the Martian moons based on detailed estimates for the sources and sinks of the dust particles as well as their lifetimes. However, there is no compelling

observational evidence for the predicted dust torus around Phobos or Deimos orbits, and there are no observations yet of dust dynamics near their surfaces. Naturally, in order to detect the motion of dust near the surfaces of these moons, and their dust tori we need measurements using a complementary set of sensitive instruments, including impart dust detectors, electric field sensors, and optical cameras in future missions to Mars and its moons.

http://www.planetary.brown.edu/planetary/geo287/PhobosDeimos/papers/Zakharov%20et%20al_Dust%20at%20the%20Martian%20moons%20and%20in%20the%20circummartian%20space-2014.pdf

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Article The distribution of dust devil activity on Mars

Dear Rafik, thank you. We are looking more toward ground truth, less into modeling.

I'm not sure you can find true ground truth without significant model-dependence. Some sources of information to get closer to observations include:

1) Fenton et al. (in press) review dust lofted at Earth and Mars, from satellites, at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-016-0243-6. Keep an eye out for a Murphy et al. paper to show up soon at SSR that covers surface-based observations of dust devils.

2) Klose et al. (in press) review (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-016-0261-4) of dust devil (specifically) sediment transport.

3) Greeley et al 2010 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010JE003608/pdf) has the best rover-based estimates and cites the best Pathfinder estimates (Ferri et al. 2003) for dust devils.

4) You can use sedimentation timescales and dust amounts from Lemmon et al 2015 (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103514001559) to estimate averages.

Маrk, there must be dust sensors  on Curiosity and Opportunity  in connection with solar panels cleaning. IS THAT right?

Dear Rafik, thank you so much.

Yes, there are sensors that measure solar array current, similar to pathfinder's. Those are used with radiative transfer models to get dust loss. Jennifer Herman at JPL did an AGU poster last year about it. I'm hoping a paper comes out, and even that the data get publicly archived. But it is not very accessible yet. Geoff Landis published some of the pathfinder results and wrote about what MER would do (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20040191326.pdf), but I do not think anything is really out.

Mark, thank you very much.

I had this paper come out last year estimating dust deposition and dust removal from camera calibration targets on the MER rovers.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EA000073/full

Dr. Kinch, thank you very much!

We used Mariner 1972 dust instrument data to calc column density for UVS data. Look for it in PDS Atmospheres data bases.

Dr. Simmons, are there any publications about  your 

findings?

• Thank you very much,