NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dunes with Frost

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-743, 31 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Springtime for the martian northern hemisphere brings
defrosting spots and patterns to the north polar
dune fields.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an example located
near 76.7°N, 250.4°W.
In summer, these dunes would be darker than their surroundings.
However, while they are still covered by frost, they are not
any darker than the substrate across which the sand is slowly
traveling. Dune movement in this case is dominated by winds that blow
from the southwest (lower left) toward the northeast (upper right).
The picure covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across and 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.