NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dune and Dust Devil Streaks
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-474, 5 September 2003
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This August 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows a dark sand dune on the floor of a crater at
54.9°S, 342.5°W. Recent dust devils have disrupted a thin coating
of dust on the otherwise dark dune; these wind phenomena created
the plethora of markings and streaks on the dune.
The image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across
and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
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.