NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Wind Streak Changes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-837, 2 September 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This pair of
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
images shows changes in dark wind streak patterns
that occurred between 5 April 1999 (image M00-00534)
and 17 August 2004 (image R20-00901). Unlike the
spaghetti-like streak patterns made by dust devils,
these streaks all begin on their upwind ends as
tapered forms that fan outward in the downwind
direction, and they all indicate winds that blew
from the same direction. In both cases, winds blew
from the southeast (lower right) toward the
northwest (upper left). These streaks and the
small pedestal craters found among them occur
in the Memnonia region of Mars
near 5.9°S, 162.2°W. The 400 meter
scale bar is about 437 yards long.
Sunlight illuminates each scene from
the upper left.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.