NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Sandy Dunes
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1585, 14 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark sand dunes, with a thin coating of autumn frost, in the Ogygis Regio west of Argyre basin. The steepest slopes on the dunes, their slip faces, point toward the north-northeast (upper right), indicating that the dominant winds in the region blow from the south-southwest (lower left). |
| Location near: 50.4°S, 66.6°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern Autumn |
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.
