NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Arabian Dunes
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1119, 11 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a field of low-albedo (dark) barchan sand dunes in a crater located in western Arabia Terra. Small dunes like these are common in the craters of western Arabia Terra and they are often the source of finer, dark sediment that forms windstreaks further downwind. The steepest slopes on the dunes, their slipfaces, are pointed toward the southeast (lower right), indicating that the dominant winds in this location come from the opposite direction. |
Location near: 6.4°N, 346.2°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
