NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Undercover
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1482, 3 June 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dunes covered with a seasonally-deposited layer of solid carbon dioxide (CO2) in the north polar region of Mars. The dark spots indicate areas where the CO2 frost has begun to change, either by being sublimed away, or by becoming rougher or coarser-grained, such that it appears darker than surrounding frost. Over the course of the spring season, the frost will be completely removed and the dark sands that make up the dune field will be visible by summer. |
| Location near: 77.7°N, 41.7°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Spring |
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.
