19-21 September 2023

From 19 to 21 September, the “Dust on Mars” final workshop was organised at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA- IASB) in Brussels (Belgium). The workshop was organized as a mix of invited lectures, oral presentations and poster sessions, and addressed different topics related to dust and clouds, their characteristics (dynamics, radiative), their characterisation in the lab, and detection using remote sensing instruments.

The workshop was co-funded by RoadMap and specifically addressed PhD and Master students.

Invited lectures:

  • Optical properties of Martian dust - I. Laboratory measurements, Olga Muñoz (IAA, Spain): presentation - recording
  • Optical properties of Martian dust - II. Modeling, Julia Martikainen (IAA, Spain): presentation - recording
  • Collisions of grains: From sticking to fragmentation, Gerhard Wurm (UDE, Germany): presentation - recording
  • Wind driven dust and sand transport, Jonathan Merrison (AU, Denmark): presentation - recording
  • Dust aerosol properties on Mars from spacecraft: A current perspective, Yannick Willame (BIRA-IASB, Belgium) & Mike Wolff (SSI, USA): presentation - recording
  • Light polarization and its use in retrievals of atmospheric particles (clouds, aerosols), Filip Vanhellemont (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
  • Monitoring Martian dust storms by multi-satellite observations, Luca Montabone (SSI, USA): presentation - recording
  • GCM modelling of dust: transport and radiative effects, Lori Neary (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording

Other presentations:

  • Power attenuation of Mars rovers solar panels due to dust accumulation, Thomas Pierron (CNRS, France): presentation - recording
  • Compilation of the results of laboratory measurements at UDE, Tim Becker (UDE, Germany): presentation - recording
  • Aerosol climatology from NOMAD UVIS, Zachary Flimon (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
  • Temperature retrievals from NOMAD-SO, Loïc Trompet (BIRA-IASB, Belgium): presentation - recording
  • Improving the dust vertical distribution in the Mars PCM: Successes and challenges, Antoine Bierjon (CNRS, France): presentation - recording


The workshop included an interaction with students from the LUCA School of Art who presented an updated version of their artistic visualizations of Martian dust and ice clouds, created during their “magnet week” in March. Some impressions