NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Tharsis Limb Cloud
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1207, 7 September 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This composite of red and blue Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired on 6 July 2005 shows an isolated water ice cloud extending more than 30 kilometers (more than 18 miles) above the martian surface. Clouds such as this are common in late spring over the terrain located southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. Arsia Mons is the dark, oval feature near the limb, just to the left of the “T” in the “Tharsis Montes” label. The dark, nearly circular feature above the “S” in “Tharsis” is the volcano, Pavonis Mons, and the other dark circular feature, above and to the right of “s” in “Montes,” is Ascraeus Mons. Illumination is from the left/lower left.
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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.
