Dust Devil Passes Near Martian Sand Dune

Beyond a dark sand dune closer to the rover, a Martian dust devil passes in front of the horizon in this frame from an animation from NASA Curiosity Mars rover.

This image from an animation shows effects of one Martian day of wind blowing sand underneath NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on a non-driving day for the rover. Each image was taken just after sundown by the rover's downward-looking Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). The area of ground shown in the images spans about 3 feet (about 1 meter) left-to-right. The first image was taken on Jan. 23, 2017, during the 1,587th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Figure 1 above is the image with a scale bar in centimeters. The second was taken on Jan. 24, 2017 (Sol 1588). The day-apart images by MARDI were taken as a part of investigation of wind's effects during Martian summer, the windiest time of year in Gale Crater. An animation is available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21143