A Dust Devil on Mars . ... Credit Copyright: HiRISE , MRO , LPL (U. Arizona) , NASA Explanation: It was late in the northern martian spring when the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spied this local denizen . ... Common to this region of Mars , dust devils occur as the surface is heated by the Sun, generating warm, rising air currents that begin to rotate. Tangential wind speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour are reported for dust devils in other HiRISE images . ...