NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Dark Gray Dunes, Bright Orange Dust

Image Context:

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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This approximately true color THEMIS VIS image shows the striking contrast between large, dark
dunes and the surrounding surface. These dunes are at the southernmost edge of the Russel Crater
dune field, located in the heavily cratered terrain of the southern highlands. Dust devil tracks off the
eastern edge of the dune field reveal that the bright orange surface is material that can be stripped away,
exposing an underlying darker surface. The gray surface to the west of the dunefield may be either a
thin sand sheet or a surface preferentially stripped of the bright orange material, possibly revealing the
same underlying surface that is exposed in the dust devil tracks. Bright orange areas between the dunes
probably highlight areas that are protected from the wind, allowing dust to accumulate into bright orange
patches.

Initial image processing and calibration by THEMIS team members J. Bell, T. McConnochie, and
D. Savransky at Cornell University; additional processing and final color balance by space artist Don Davis.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University/Cornell/Don Davis