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Atmospheric opacity (tau) for Spirit and Opportunity during the 2007 dust storm

Atmospheric opacity (tau) for Spirit and Opportunity during the 2007 dust storm
Atmospheric opacity (tau) for Spirit and Opportunity during the 2007 dust storm For both rovers, typical values of atmospheric opacity, or tau, hover between 0 and 1. During June and July of 2007, dust storms lofted dust into the atmosphere, increasing the opacity to never-before-seen values above 5. At these levels, less than 1% of the sunlight that impinges on the top of Mars' atmosphere reaches the rovers' solar panels. Data from Mark Lemmon / Graph by Doug Ellison