NASA Mars Picture of the Day: North Polar Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-946, 20 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a grouping of elongated, dark (low albedo)
sand dunes in the north polar region of Mars. This picture
was acquired during early summer in October 2004. The larger
dune mass in this image may have accumulated through
the coalescence of smaller dunes. These features are located
near 85.7°N, 180.4°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.