Mars Picture of the Day: Syria/Claritas Dust Storm

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-379, 2 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This color-enhanced composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle images shows
dust-raising events—small dust “storms” and a few very large
dust devils—in the Syria/Claritas region around 2 p.m. (1400)
local time on May 21, 2003. The region is southwest of
the Labyrinthus Noctis, near 14°S, 108°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
left; winds were blowing from the west/southwest
when the picture was taken.

This composite was constructed from a full-resolution (240
meters per pixel) red wide angle image and a much lower
resolution (7.5 km per pixel) blue wide angle image
acquired at the same time.

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.