NASA Mars Picture of the Day: North Polar Sand Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-417, 10 July 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The martian north polar ice cap is surrounded by fields
of dark, windblown sand dunes.
This March 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows dunes
near 76.5°N, 264.7°W. The steep dune slip faces
indicate wind transport of sand from the lower left
toward the upper right.
Sunlight illuminates the scene 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.