Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Sand Dunes in Kaiser Crater
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-306, 18 April 2002
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high
resolution image shows a field of dark sand dunes on the floor of
Kaiser Crater in southeastern Noachis Terra. The steepest slopes on
each dune, the slip faces, point toward the east, indicating
that the strongest winds that blow across the floor of Kaiser
move sand in this direction. Wind features of three different
scales are visible
in this image: the largest (the dunes) are moving across a hard
surface (light tone) that is itself partially covered by large
ripples. These large ripples appear not to be moving--the dunes are
burying some and revealing others. Another type of ripple pattern
is seen on
the margins of the dunes and where dunes coalesce. They are smaller
(both in their height and in their separation) than the large ripples.
These are probably coarse sediments that are moving with the dunes. This
picture covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is
illuminated from the upper left.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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,
CA. 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, CA
and Denver, CO.
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