NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Summer Modification
GS MOC Release No. MOC2-1453, 5 May 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the outer edge of the south polar residual cap of Mars during southern summer. The variability in brightness across the image would not be as apparent had the data been acquired during late winter or spring, owing to the presence of seasonally deposited, carbon dioxide frost. Over the spring and into early summer, the seasonal carbon dioxide is removed through sublimation, and then the thicker, older accumulations of carbon dioxide—deposited hundreds or thousands of years ago—erodes. As this occurs, some surfaces become darker, either because they are roughened by erosion, contain dark material such as mineral dust, or both. |
| Location near: 86.9°S, 111.7°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern Summer |
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.
