NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Chasma Boreale Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-517, 18 October 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Frost covers dark sand dunes in this springtime view from
Chasma Boreale in the martian north polar region. Dark spots
indicate areas where the cold, carbon dioxide frost has begun
to sublime away.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
is located
near 84.7°N, 359.3°W and covers an area 3 km
(1.9 mi) wide. The scene is illuminated by sunlight from the lower 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.