Mars Picture of the Day: Large, Bright Wind Ripples

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-397, 20 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
shows large, relatively bright ripples of windblown sediment in
the Sinus Sabaeus region south of Schiaparelli Basin. The surrounding
substrate is thickly mantled by very dark material, possibly windblown
silt that settled out of the atmosphere.
The picture is located near 7.1°S, 343.7°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
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.