Mars Picture of the Day: Wind Streak Changes

Mars Global Surveyor – Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-358, 12 May 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Mars is a dynamic planet.
This pair of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) pictures,
taken 2 Mars years apart, show changes in dark streak patterns
caused by wind movement of dust. The top picture was taken in July 1999,
the bottom one in March 2003.
The pair of images are in Tharsis near
9.5°S, 128.5°W.
Sunlight illuminates both from the
upper 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.