NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Noachis Dust Storm

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-523, 24 October 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The edges of the retreating seasonal polar caps of Mars
are sites of frequent dust storms. The temperature
contrast between the cold polar cap surfaces
and the adjacent, warmer, frost-free surfaces set up
the conditions for cold air to come streaming off the
polar cap, picking up dust as soon as it hits the
frost-free terrain. Dust storms are the result. This
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a dust storm in southeast Noachis Terra
near 55°S, 316°W, on 21 June 2001. This was one
of several precursor storms that led up to the global
dust events of 2001. The frosted surface
of the seasonal south polar cap is the lighter-toned
terrain in the lower half of the image; the darker upper
half is frost-free. Winds are blowing the dust storm
(located at left-center) toward the north (top/upper right).
The large crater just below the center of the
picture is Peneus Patera. It is approximately 120 km
(~75 mi) across. This MOC red wide angle picture
is illuminated by sunlight 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.