What about the equatorial factor and the formation of the star-like dunes near Schiaparelli crater?
Allow me to toss an idea into the ring which considers Mars' global dust storms and the potential for the high state of charge which might occur in a mass of elevated dust. I would take into consideration observations of large
scale dust storms in my region which are called haboobs in which are often
seen dust devils spinning off at the leading edge and then there is the strange manner which these walls of dust advance. It is said that they result from one source, expansion of the moist air of a distant rain shower into the dry regional air mass and they call it an "outflow boundary". I don't disagree with that but i think the dust takes on a life of its own once the initial outflow has raised a sufficient amount of dust. As the cloud advances it seems to gain in strength but not in speed. The wall can extend many tens of miles across the front edge.
I would wonder if at a certain distance from the initial down pour of rain the expansion would loose its force and diminish its outward push, at times it does, but there are other times when the dust storm seems to come to life as though it were an electrically charged body with electric wind discharging to the area ahead of it. But this is just a dry-air example we can observe regularly and from many vantage points.
Now to Mars where global dust storms most certainly gain great electrical potential and it is this potential which would seem to rise to a level of a significant charge-differential to the surface of the planet below, resulting in a frontal wall of discharging vorti. Local discharges and subsequent deposition are what seems to be the likely cause for the star-like dunes (in this case appear in a cone shape hinting to regional dust disturbance) and i base this on what is seen during CRT experiments where material is raised from the surface to the probe or another passing CRT as discharges occur between them,, then redistributed by further electrical interaction,, with the end result being material concentrations at locations that served as discharge-paths -being elevated places- like ridges and pointed features, as seen above.
Between the ridges and peaks are interconnecting ridges but the valleys are key because as charge is drawn along coronal pathways there should be material being carried along as well. This was demonstrated in CRT experiments with simulated ridge-features placed on the surface. During instances when the surface is feature-less, the discharge location first draws charge and material,, and then in the back-flow pulse,, redeposits it back to the excavated tendril's spines. Notice the coronal fingers of those spines.
The equatorial factor has to do with external influence triggering certain dust storms on Mars, such as spring of 2001 when the Earth passed-up Mars. At that time the two bodies were closer than they'd been in 400 years. That is a lot of time to store charge-potential,,, that may get dumped off on the Moon and account for some of its craters,, specifically on the near-side. But the far-side may be vulnerable due to the Moon's total emersion in Earth's tail... Ancient cultures tell us of a time when Venus posed such a threat and Earth suffered great catastrophe...
Venus still has a Dark-mode Plasma-tail..
Earth's plasma tail would seem to have the equatorial region, of an adjacent body, as the nearest point to influence,, so the location of these star-like dunes in that region is a coincidental detail that may have more meaning when considered from an electric perspective, - either by local-only, elevated charge potential from dust storms and subsequent discharges- and/or much larger scale inter-planetary discharge,,, setting the whole event in motion.
Our moon also passes through the Earth's tail region.. A recent Space-Weather article tells something of another "Surprise!!! Discovery."
But their perspective needs to be examined through a larger body of evidence for inter-planetary electrical discharge.
That last suggestion is what was reported by ancient legends world-wide,,, Mars was known as Scar-Face... How did they know of its planetary-wide canyon called Valles Marinaris? They didn't have telescopes,, but they did witness events which our s$cientists have dismissed unjustly...
There is evidence for "A Bad Day On Mars" - By Andrew Hall of The Thunderbolts Project.
What ever be the mechanism, there is no mistaking the match between the appearance of the star-like featured formed on a CRT, by material deposition to locations of electrical discharge, as compared to the Star-like dunes seen on Mars by the orbiting probes.
In this image,, the bare area is where a metal strip was place to draw a dischage from the surface.
And this is just a tiny portion of what these experiments delivered.
See results in preperation for NPA12
