Daily winds shift sands of Martian dune field

Martian winds may stir the Red Planet’s sand more often than scientists thought. Previous observations and experiments suggested that wind speeds strong enough to move the planet’s sand would be rare. However, new images of the Nili Patera dune fields taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the sand in that region moves every day. The amount the sand moves appears to be tied to the seasons, researchers report September 30 in Nature Communications.