NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day has turned its gaze toward a Martian oddity that has apparently been doing its thing since before most of us were born: the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, or AMEC, first recorded by NASA's Viking Orbiter 2 back in 1977.

For the uninitiated, AMEC is exactly what it sounds like - an unusually long cloud on Mars, formed near the volcano Arsia Mons. ESA's robotic Mars Express spacecraft has since imaged it in greater detail, with the featured image dating to 2018. The cloud, it turns out, is a creature of habit: it forms only during spring and summer, and only in the morning hours. A cloud with a strict seasonal schedule and a hard out by noon. Very relatable.

The AMEC is made of water-ice, which raises the question of how its crystals form at all. The most familiar process - cloud crystals nucleating around bits of dust - would fail here, owing to the thinness and lack of dust high in the Martian atmosphere. Leading speculation therefore holds that dust is not involved, which is the scientific way of saying "we're not entirely sure, but it's definitely not that."

What is clear: after forming near Arsia Mons, wind blows the cloud downstream, creating a tail that can extend over 1500 kilometers. That's a cloud with a commute.

Efforts to better understand AMECs will continue - and according to NASA, that understanding may bolster a more complete view of cloud formation on Earth. So the next time you complain about the weather, consider that someone is studying a 1,500-kilometer ice tail on another planet to explain it. Tomorrow's picture, for the record: eyeing a cat.