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The HiRISE camera has done it again: here is yet another stunning image of an active dust devil on Mars.

Dust devils are rotating columns of dust that form around low-pressure air pockets, and are common on both Earth and Mars. This Martian dust devil formed on the dust-covered, volcanic plains of Amazonis Planitia. The dust devil is bright, and its core is roughly 50 meters across. The dark streak on the ground behind the dust devil is its shadow. The length of the shadow suggests the plume of rotating dust rises about 650 meters into the atmosphere!

There are several HiRISE images of tracks left behind by dust devils, but it is rare to catch one in motion. Check out this amazing image of a nearby dust devil.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 29.4 centimeters [11.6 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 88 centimeters [34.6 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.