New pictures of the south polar cap on Mars and a global
view of the dust storm occurring there have been released by
the imaging team for NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
Marking the four-year anniversary of its arrival at Mars,
Global Surveyor’s camera took a wide-angle view of the Martian
south polar region on Sept. 12, 2001.
Several dramatic dust storms that began a few months ago
are also seen in the image. One is located near the Martian
equator, and the other is shown northwest of the Ascraeus Mons
volcano.
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Springtime on the Martian South Polar Cap This view of the martian south polar region was acquired on September 12, 2001, four years to the day after MGS first began to orbit the Red Planet. View this image:
Date Published: Friday, September 21, 2001 |
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Snapshot of Southern Spring Dust Storm Activity Southern spring on Mars began with a “bang” in late June 2001 with a series of large dust storms. View this image:
Date Published: Friday, September 21, 2001 |
The images are also available at these Web sites:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mars
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/dust_9_01/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/spolar_9_01/
Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington,
D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. The camera system is operated by Malin
Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.
