Bad Moon Rising
The Opportunity rover captured an image of a solar eclipse from the surface of Mars. While not a rare event on the red planet, capturing the image of one of Mars' two moons as thet pass in front of the Sun can tell atmospheric scientists much about what lies between the rover and the upper air layer.

Riding into a Martian Sunset
Readers consistently ranked highly the inspirational quality of seeing images of a Martian sunset. A still view of the Sun setting on the red planet offers scientists insight into dust in the atmosphere, since scattered light contributes to the familiar blue highlights even on an unfamiliar planet.

Mars, Fair to Partly Cloudy
The science mission for Mars Express will deliver ground penetrating radar, in search of water. But its weather forecasts will deliver temperatures twice as accurate as typically seen on Earth, all by transmitting a radio signal across the thin atmosphere near the martian limb.

Mars is Solar Groovy
While engineers engage their rover with mission commands and scientists look for rocks, an untold history on Mars is being written by the weather itself. In Gusev crater, or the 'cup' where the Spirit rover came to rest, newly released images from orbit indicate that tiny tornadoes called 'dust devils' have tracked over the landing site in just the last few months.

Interview with Bill Nye: The Sundial Guy
Early next year, the first interplanetary sundials will be tested on the surface of Mars if all goes according to plan. The sundials, inspired by a flash from Bill Nye, the Science Guy, also will allow scientists to calibrate the pink color of the martian sky. Astrobiology Magazine interviewed Nye on how the sundials came to ride on the Mars science package, called Athena.

Mars: Appointed Rounds
At the midway point in the journey of two martian rovers, their final landing sites will be nailed down officially. After that October decision, the unique aspects of weather on Mars will present their own version of wind, cold and long nights.

Dialing Up Mars
For those interested in understanding the red planet, a scientific stowaway aboard the two NASA Mars' probes promises to offer a unique view. A Cornell collaboration with Bill Nye, 'the Science Guy', and schoolchildren has launched the first interplanetary sundial. The solar clocks perform two functions: telling time on Mars, while offering camera calibration for photographing the true color of the pinkish Martian sky.

Alien Weather
Mars Odyssey scientists are prospecting the Red Planet for future explorers. The evidence of more polar ice and dissolved potassium from rocks, together continues to build the case for a glacial martian history, but its intense radiation would challenge unprotected life.

August of Wind: Storm Chasing on the Red Planet
On August 8th, a rare Mars Orbital Camera image was released actually capturing a dust devil in the act of creating a streak as it climbed an embankment out of a crater. The photo gives pause: what kind of extreme conditions might a sensitive scientific instrument encounter on the Red Planet? It's just the sort of question posed by a storm-chasing group of scientists who conduct a test suite named Project Matador.

Space Weather on Mars
Future human explorers of Mars can leave their umbrellas back on Earth, but perhaps they shouldn't forget their Geiger counters! A NASA experiment en route to the Red Planet aims to find out.