NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Daedalia Dust Devil

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-574, 14 December 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an active dust devil making its way across
an intercrater surface in western Daedalia Planum. This
picture, a MOC “classic,” was obtained back in October 1999.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower left, thus
the somewhat curved shadow cast by the spinning column of air
can be seen to the right of the dust devil. This area is
located near 10.0°S, 143.0°W. 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.