NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dust Devils Together

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-971, 14 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image, acquired during northern summer in November
2004, shows a group of three large afternoon dust devils
occurring within several kilometers of each other in
northwestern Amazonis. The image covers an area 3 km
(1.9 mi) wide and was obtained with a spatial resolution
of 12 meters (13 yards) per pixel. This scene is located
near 36.2°N, 157.6°W. Sunlight illuminates the
dust devils from the 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.