Convective Vertical Velocities of Dust Devils in Gale Crater, Mars

Abstract Dust devils are believed to be a significant contributor to the martian global dust cycle, supplying as much as 50% of dust to the atmosphere annually. However, their in situ meteorological properties remain poorly known, specifically horizontal and vertical wind speeds. We use Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover Navigation Camera images to track image‐to‐image changes in dust devil heights as a proxy for their vertical wind speeds. Across 54 dust devils, we find an average vertical wind speed of ∼1.79 m s −1 with a standard deviation of 0.39 m s −1 , nearly identical to the 1.8 m s −1 found in Gusev Crater by the Spirit rover (Greeley et al., 2006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006je002743 ). Using typical dust devil opacities and occurrence rates in Gale Crater, we find the areal dust mass flux into the atmosphere in Gale Crater to be 3.5*10 −11 kg s −1 m −2 , 1–2 orders of magnitude below that of other regions on Mars.