. . . a lot!

Do to something called Paschen's Law, there is a lot of dust in the Martians atmosphere. The same is true of our own Moon. People are surprised at this, wondering how dust could be levitated without a significant level of atmospheric pressure. The answer is Paschen's Law. These tiny particles, almost microscopic in size, have been ionized by Solar radiation and are therefore holding a static charge.

Buzz Aldrin went into some detail regarding the even, concentric ripples that moved through the lunar dust from his footsteps. The static charge also means the particles are magnetized, which makes an even bigger mess. I believe the larger storms have only occurred during Mars’ perihelion, or when the planet is closest to the Sun, but the dust storm is most likely due to seasonal temperature changes, and actually has a settling effect on airborne particles.

Busy? Here’s some light reading.

Cheers,
Dan