NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Medusae Sulci Yardangs

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Erosive winds have removed large volumes of material in
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image to form yardang ridges. The most classic yardang
shape is that of the inverted boat hull; each of these
streamlined hills provides a near-textbook example. The
landforms are found in the Medusae Sulci region
near 5.7°S, 159.8°W. The image
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide, and is
illuminated by sunlight from the lower 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.