NASA Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar Layers 03-27-2004

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-678, 27 March 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This 1.5 meter per pixel (5 ft./pixel)
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows south polar layers exposed on the slopes of
a mesa
near 74.2°S, 244.6°W. These layers were once
more extensive across the region, today only this and a
few other remnants remain. The dark streaks were
created by spring and summer dust devils that
swept across the layered mesa with little regard to the
changes in topography.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.