NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Wind vs. Dust Devil Streaks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-644, 22 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image presents a fine illustration of the difference
between streaks made by dust devils and streaks made
by wind gusts. Dust devils are usually solitary, spinning
vortices. They resemble a tornado, or the swirling motion
of a familiar, Tasmanian cartoon character. Wind gusts, on
the other hand, can cover a larger area and affect more
terrain at the same time. The dark, straight, and parallel
features resembling scrape marks near the right/center of this
image are thought to have been formed by a singular gust of wind,
whereas the more haphazard dark streaks that crisscross the
scene were formed by dozens of individual dust devils, acting
at different times. This southern summer
image is located in Noachis Terra
near 67.0°S, 316.2°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left; the
picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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,