Studies of the 2018/Mars Year 34 Planet‐Encircling Dust Storm

Mars’ planet‐encircling or global dust storms (GDSs) are an iconic and enigmatic feature of the Red Planet. Occurring every few Mars Years (MYs), on average, they are a stochastic process in the otherwise largely repeatable annual cycle of martian weather. In 2018 (MY 34 in the calendar of Clancy et al. [2000], https://doi.org/10.1029/1999je001089), an international fleet of spacecraft–six orbiters and two rovers–observed the most recent GDS. This introduction and the articles of this special collection describe the evolution and impacts of the storm from the surface to the exosphere, compare this storm to previous GDSs, identify new phenomena never previously seen in such storms, and attempt to determine how and when GDSs develop. Mars’ planet‐encircling or global dust storms are an iconic and enigmatic feature of the Red Planet. Occurring every few Mars Years, on average, they are a seemingly random process in the otherwise largely repeatable annual cycle of martian weather. In 2018, an international fleet of spacecraft, six orbiters and two rovers, observed the most recent global dust storm. This introduction and the articles of this special collection describe the evolution and impacts of the storm from the surface to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, compare this storm to previous global dust storms, identify new phenomena never‐before seen in such storms, and attempt to determine how and when global dust storms develop. Six orbiters, two rovers, and Earth‐based telescopes observed the 2018 Mars global dust stormThe 27 papers of this special collection study the storm with observations, modeling, and theoryThe 2018 storm is the most comprehensively studied Mars global dust storm to date Six orbiters, two rovers, and Earth‐based telescopes observed the 2018 Mars global dust storm The 27 papers of this special collection study the storm with observations, modeling, and theory The 2018 storm is the most comprehensively studied Mars global dust storm to date