NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dune and Dust Devil Tracks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-622, 31 January 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a dark sand dune patch that occurs on the floor
of a southern hemisphere crater
near 64.1°S, 197.2°W. Passing dust devils have
disrupted the fine, bright dust that coats the surrounding
terrain, leaving wildly-varied streak patterns. Dark dots to
the left (west) of the dune are boulders.
The picture covers an area 3 km
(1.9 mi) wide; sunlight illuminates the scene 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.