NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Swirling Winds Reflected In Dunes

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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These dark transverse and linear dunes are located in the floor of a
crater in the southern highlands. The dunes appear to follow the flow
of winds that circle around the crater floor, creating a swirling pattern.
Rather than swirling winds, however, the apparent arc may simply
be caused by a north to south shift in the relative strengths of two
winds that influence these dunes.

[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