NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Complex Wind Streaks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-638, 16 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Northeastern Tharsis is known for its complicated
patterns of wind streaks. Wind streaks are formed by
sediment transport and deposition by wind.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows a pattern of crisscrossing streaks indicating
winds that generally blow from the southwest (lower left)
toward northeast (upper right), but vary over time.
The image is located
near 27.6°N, 98.9°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the image
covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.