NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dust Event

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-737, 25 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

From time to time, the
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
catches–in action–an afternoon dust storm, dust devil,
or other dust-raising event. The dust-raising event
shown here, probably the result of a sudden strong
gust of wind, occurred in November 2003 in a crater located
near 57.5°S, 60.6°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left, so the
dark area below the dust plume is its shadow. The picture
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.

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.