Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Daedalia Dust Devil
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-574, 14 December 2003
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an active dust devil making its way across an intercrater surface in western Daedalia Planum. This picture, a MOC "classic," was obtained back in October 1999. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower left, thus the somewhat curved shadow cast by the spinning column of air can be seen to the right of the dust devil. This area is located near 10.0°S, 143.0°W. The image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.
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.
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