NASA Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar Wind Drifts

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-693, 11 April 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows evidence of wind deposition of fine sediment
in the form of
drifts in the lee of obstacles in the martian south
polar region.
The picture is located
near 83.4°S, 8.1°W.
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.