NASA Mars Image of the Day: Clouds near Icaria Planum
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-430, 23 July 2003
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
Like Earth, the martian atmosphere has clouds.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
shows small, puffy, water ice clouds over a cratered terrain
near Icaria Planum. Illuminated by sunlight from the upper
left, these small clouds cast shadows on the ground toward
the lower right. This center of this image is near
31°S, 113°W. The picture was taken using MOC’s
blue wide angle camera.
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.