This image was taken by the visible imaging subsystem (VIS) of the thermal emission imaging system (THEMIS) on Mars Odyssey in early November 2001, through one of the instrument's five visible filters. The spacecraft was approximately 22,000 kilometers above Mars looking down toward the south pole when the image was acquired. The image shows details along the edge of the ice cap (saturated in this image to accentuate the adjacent bare ground), as well as atmospheric hazes near the cap. The view of the surface appears hazy due to dust that still remained in the martian atmosphere from the massive martian dust storms that had occurred over the preceding several months.