NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Gale Crater in IR Color

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
[ Find on map: Javascript version ]

[ Find on map: CGI version ]

This image shows two representations of the same infra-red image of Gale 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.

In the bottom of the crater, surrounding the central mound, there are extensive basaltic sand deposits. The basaltic sand spectral signature combined with the warm surface (due to the low albedo of basaltic sand) produces a very strong pink/magenta color. This color signature contrasts with the green/yellow color of soil and dust in the top of the image, and the cyan color due to the presence of water ice clouds at the bottom of the image. This migrating sand may be producing the erosional features seen on the central mound.

[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