As this blog has tracked over the past several weeks, a huge dust storm on Mars has been threatening to end the explorations of both of NASA's Red Planet rovers. Now, however, the storm is weakening, the rovers' power levels have been built up, and both will be on the move again shortly.
The danger to the missions is not over yet, however. Lots of dust is still in the atmosphere, cutting down on the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface. Some of that dust will settle on the rovers' solar panels, cutting their ability to collect energy. Ironically, the best thing for that settling dust would be a wind that blows the dust off the panels, as has happened earlier in these missions.
Strong winds, of course, can herald big storms. So it goes, on Earth, and on Mars.
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