Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Windblown Dunes

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-761, 18 June 2004


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows barchan and linear dunes that seem to have grown from the coalescence of barchans in a crater in the Noachis Terra region. The winds responsible for these dunes blow from the lower left (southwest). The image occurs near 46.0°S, 323.6°W, and covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.

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