NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: DCS in Hesperia Planum

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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This image shows two representations of the same infra-red image in Hesperia Planum, west of Herschel Crater. On the left is a grayscale image showing

surface temperature, and on the right is a false-color composite made

from 3 individual THEMIS bands. The false-color image is colorized

using a technique called decorrelation stretch (DCS), which emphasizes

the spectral differences between the bands to highlight compositional

variations.

The two primary compositions that cover most of Mars – dust and basalt (probably in the form of sand) – are well represented in this image. In this image, the dust is green in color and the basalt is pink/magenta. The strongest basaltic signatures appear in the bottoms of craters, which act as topographic traps for the sand. Green dust streaks appear behind many of the smaller craters. The topographic relief of the crater prevents the wind from cleansing the dust from the surface. These features enable the determination of the prevailing wind direction in the region.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University