NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Work of the Wind
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1346, 18 January 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a few dark wind streaks in the lee—the downwind side—of shallow craters on a lava- and dust-covered plain in eastern Tharsis. Streaks in east Tharsis, such as these, are usually very superficial features that change on timescales as quickly as a few weeks to months as very thin coatings of dust are redistributed by the wind. |
Location near: 2.4°N, 95.6°W |
Image width: ~1 km (~0.6 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Winter |
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.
