NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Frosty Mountains

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-409, 2 July 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The Mars Picture of the Day for June 10, 2003, showed an early southern spring view of the frost-covered Charitum Montes, south of Argyre Planitia. Today’s picture shows some of the same mountain range, as it appeared in early June 2003 when viewed the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle cameras. This perspective view was created by combining MOC red and blue camera images with topographic data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), another instrument onboard MGS. The bright areas are surfaces covered by frost. The picture is located near 57°S, 43°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. North, and Argyre Planitia, are toward the top.

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.