The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Clouds of dust visible on the martian surface from the perspective of the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA’s Mars Express. The clouds form part of a large dust storm churning at the martian North Pole on 29 May 2019.
The pattern of small cloud cells is caused by closed-cell convection, a type of convection which creates similar cloud shapes on Earth. The granular cells have horizontal sizes of 20–40 km.
Imaging of this storm by the VMC allowed the measurement of the height of the cells.
Measurement of the size of shadows cast by the cells, combined with knowledge of the position of the Sun, revealed that the cells are between 6–11 km above the surface of the Red Planet.