Cette galrie comprend des photos provenant des observations réalisées par le télescope spatial Hubble, de la mission MSG Mars Global Surveyor, quelques photos de Mariner, de Mars Express et des phtos diverses.

Galerie de photos de la planète Mars

<h1>PIA01589: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Pathfinder Landing Site</h1><div class="PIA01589" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. NASA is releasing these images to commemorate the second anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder landing. The lander and its rover, Sojourner, touched down on the Red Planet's rolling hills on July 4, 1997, embarking on an historic three-month mission to gather information on the planet's atmosphere, climate, and geology.<p>The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images <a href="/catalog/PIA01587">PIA01587</a>), which, together, show the entire planet.<p>This image is centered near the location of the Pathfinder landing site. Dark sand dunes that surround the polar cap merge into a large, dark region called Acidalia. This area, as shown by images from the Hubble telescope and other spacecraft, is composed of dark, sand-sized grains of pulverized volcanic rock. Below and to the left of Acidalia are the massive Martian canyon systems of Valles Marineris, some of which form long linear markings that were once thought by some to be canals. Early morning clouds can be seen along the left limb of the planet, and a large cyclonic storm composed of water ice is churning near the polar cap.<p>This color composite is generated from data using three filters: blue (410 nanometers), green (502 nanometers), and red (673 nanometers).<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01589" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01589: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Pathfinder Landing Site sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01589: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Pathfinder Landing Site sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01589: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Pathfinder Landing Site
<h1>PIA01590: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Tharsis</h1><div class="PIA01590" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. NASA is releasing these images to commemorate the second anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder landing. The lander and its rover, Sojourner, touched down on the Red Planet's rolling hills on July 4, 1997, embarking on an historic three-month mission to gather information on the planet's atmosphere, climate, and geology.<p>The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images(see <a href="/catalog/PIA01587">PIA01587</a>), which, together, show the entire planet.<p>This image is centered on the region of the planet known as Tharsis, home of the largest volcanoes in the solar system. The bright, ring-like feature just to the left of center is the volcano Olympus Mons, which is more than 340 miles (550 kilometers) across and 17 miles(27 kilometers) high. Thick deposits of fine-grained, windblown dust cover most of this hemisphere. The colors indicate that the dust is heavily oxidized ("rusted"), and millions (or perhaps billions) of years of dust storms have homogenized its composition. Prominent late afternoon clouds along the right limb of the planet can be seen.<p>This color composite is generated from data using three filters: blue (410 nanometers), green (502 nanometers), and red (673 nanometers).<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01590" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01590: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Tharsis sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01590: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Tharsis sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01590: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Tharsis
<h1>PIA01591: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Elysium</h1><div class="PIA01591" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. NASA is releasing these images to commemorate the second anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder landing. The lander and its rover, Sojourner, touched down on the Red Planet's rolling hills on July 4, 1997, embarking on an historic three-month mission to gather information on the planet's atmosphere, climate, and geology.<p>The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images (see <a href="/catalog/PIA01587">PIA01587</a>), which, together, show the entire planet.<p>This image is centered near a volcanic region known as Elysium. This area shows many small, dark markings that have been observed by the Hubble telescope and other spacecraft to change as a result of the movement of sand and dust across the Martian surface. In the upper left of this image, at high northern latitudes, a large chevron-shaped area of water ice clouds mark a storm front. Along the right limb, a large cloud system has formed around the Olympus Mons volcano.<p>This color composite is generated from data using three filters: blue (410 nanometers), green (502 nanometers), and red (673 nanometers).<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01591" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01591: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Elysium sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01591: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Elysium sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01591: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Elysium
<h1>PIA01592: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Syrtis Major</h1><div class="PIA01592" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. NASA is releasing these images to commemorate the second anniversary of the Mars Pathfinder landing. The lander and its rover, Sojourner, touched down on the Red Planet's rolling hills on July 4, 1997, embarking on an historic three-month mission to gather information on the planet's atmosphere, climate, and geology.<p>The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images (see <a href="/catalog/PIA01587">PIA01587</a>), which, together, show the entire planet.<p>This image is centered on the dark feature known as Syrtis Major, first seen telescopically by the astronomer Christian Huygens in the 17th century. Many small, dark, circular impact craters can be seen in this region, attesting to the Hubble telescope's ability to reveal fine detail on the planet's surface. To the south of Syrtis a large circular feature called Hellas. Viking and more recently Mars Global Surveyor have revealed that Hellas is a large and deep impact crater. These Hubble telescope pictures show it to be filled with surface frost and water ice clouds. Along the right limb, late afternoon clouds have formed around the volcano Elysium.<p>This color composite is generated from data using three filters: blue (410 nanometers), green (502 nanometers), and red (673 nanometers).<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01592" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01592: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01592: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01592: A Closer Hubble Encounter With Mars - Syrtis Major
<h1>PIA01673: Early MOC Global Color Mosaics</h1><div class="PIA01673" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>These two images are synthetic views of Mars made by combining Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle images from several orbits during the first week of March 1999--during MOC's focus and calibration testing period. The blue and red lines are the edges of the original pictures. Views such as these will be used throughout the MGS Mapping Mission to characterize the changing weather patterns on Mars. Right now, it is northern hemisphere summer on Mars, and the north polar ice cap can be seen at the top of each image.</p><p>In the view on the left, thick blue-white afternoon water ice clouds can be seen surrounding and obscuring the northern-most of the large volcanoes of the Tharsis Montes region (left), and clouds can also be seen over Lunae Planum (center) and Chryse Planitia (center right).</p><p>In the right image, faint clouds are seen over Arabia (center left bright region) with somewhat thicker clouds seen over Syrtis Major (dark, triangular region toward the right). Very thick southern winter clouds can be seen "ponded" within the Hellas Basin near the bottom of the frame.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01673" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01673: Early MOC Global Color Mosaics sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01673: Early MOC Global Color Mosaics sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01673: Early MOC Global Color Mosaics
<h1>PIA01676: "Happy Face" Crater Greets MGS at the Start of the Mapping</h1><div class="PIA01676" lang="en" style="width:525px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The story of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor(MGS) spacecraft began with a proposal to NASA in 1985. The first MOC flew on Mars Observer, a spacecraft that was lost before it reached the red planet in 1993. Now, after 14 years of effort, a MOC has finally been placed in the desired mapping orbit. The MOC team's happiness is perhaps best expressed by the planet Mars itself. On the first day of the Mapping Phase of the MGS mission--during the second week of March 1999--MOC was greeted with this view of "Happy Face Crater" (center right) smiling back at the camera from its location on the east side of Argyre Planitia. This crater is officially known as Galle Crater, and it is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. The picture was taken by the MOC's red and blue wide angle cameras. The bluish-white tone is caused by wintertime frost. Illumination is from the upper left. For more information and Viking Orbiter views of "Happy Face Crater," see <a href="http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html">http://www.msss.com/education/happy_face/happy_face.html</a>.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01676" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01676: "Happy Face" Crater Greets MGS at the Start of the Mapping sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01676: "Happy Face" Crater Greets MGS at the Start of the Mapping sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01676: "Happy Face" Crater Greets MGS at the Start of the Mapping
<h1>PIA01692: Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris</h1><div class="PIA01692" lang="en" style="width:450px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During its March 1999 operations, the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) captured this stunning wide-angle camera view of the western portions of Melas and Candor Chasms in the Valles Marineris canyon system. This view covers an area that is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide and 220 kilometers (137 miles) long. Melas Chasma is located at the bottom of the image, Candor at the top. Hints of layers in the canyon walls are evident in this image. Color and albedo (brightness)variations on the floors of each chasm indicate the relative distribution of dark sand and brighter sediments and/or rocks. Dark sand on the floor of Melas Chasma was also seen by MOC in March 1999 <a href="http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/3_25_99_melas/index.html">(see MOC2-104)</a> and bright layered material was observed in Candor Chasma in April 1998 <a href="http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/7_20_98_marineris_rel/index.html">(see MOC2-59)</a>.</p><p>The colors shown here are not true colors as they would appear to the human eye. The MOC has cameras that obtain images in red and blue portions of the visible spectrum; the green portion is synthesized using the combined average values of the red and blue channels (a relationship understood from Viking Orbiter imaging in the 1970s). Illumination is from the upper left.</p><p>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01692" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01692: Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01692: Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01692: Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris
<h1>PIA01887: MGS Mars Orbiter Camera: 10 Years In Space</h1><div class="PIA01887" lang="en" style="width:596px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>7 November 2006<br />Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was launched 10 years ago today, on 7 November 1996. The spacecraft reached Mars on 12 September 1997, and has been observing the ever-changing red planet over the course of the past 5 martian years. <p><p>The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has spent 10 years in the near vacuum of space-not bad, considering that the Primary Mission, at the time of launch, was expected to end in early 2000. Since September 1997, MOC has been acquiring new images that highlight the geology and meteorology of Mars; more than 240,000 images have been returned to Earth. A recent example, from 15 October 2006, is shown here. <p><p>Two annular (i.e., somewhat circular) clouds are seen in the upper left corner of this mosaic of MOC wide angle camera daily global mapping images. To the right of the picture's center is the martian north polar cap. The image has a scale of about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) per pixel. Annular clouds are common in mid-northern summer in the north polar region, and may result from eddy currents in the lower atmosphere. The appearance of such clouds happens every year; this year they came like clockwork within a two-week forecasted period, based on the previous 4 martian years of experience gained from MGS MOC daily global imaging. <p><p>Despite their superficial resemblance to Earth-orbiting satellite views of hurricanes, these cloud features are not the result of strong winds, and they typically dissipate later in the day. The pictures used to make this mosaic were acquired less than 2 days before the MOC was turned off for MGS's fifth Mars-Earth Solar Conjunction period. During Conjunction, Mars was on the other side of the Sun, relative to Earth, and thus MGS could not transmit data (through the Sun) during the second half of October. <p><p>Examples of north polar annular clouds seen in previous Mars years were featured by the MGS MOC team in September 2005: <a href="http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/09/12/index.html">"Celebrating 8 Years at Mars: Repeated Weather Events."</a> To review the MGS launch of 10 years ago, one can visit the NASA Kennedy Space Center web site, which includes pictures and video at: <a href="http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/payload/missions/mgs/video.html" target="_blank">http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/payload/missions/mgs/video.html</a>. Video clips of the launch and many movies and videos from the earlier phases of the MGS mission can be reviewed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory web site at:<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01887" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01887: MGS Mars Orbiter Camera: 10 Years In Space sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01887: MGS Mars Orbiter Camera: 10 Years In Space sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01887: MGS Mars Orbiter Camera: 10 Years In Space
<h1>PIA01888: Mars at Ls 137°</h1><div class="PIA01888" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>13 November 2006<br />These images capture what Mars typically looks like in mid-afternoon at Ls 137°. In other words, with the exception of occasional differences in weather and polar frost patterns, this is what the red planet looks like this month (November 2006). <p></p>Six views are shown, including the two polar regions. These are composites of 24-26 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global mapping images acquired at red and blue wavelengths. The 'hole' over the south pole is an area where no images were obtained, because this polar region is enveloped in wintertime darkness. <p></p>Presently, it is summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn. Northern summer/southern winter begins at Ls 90°, northern autumn/southern spring start at Ls 180°, and northern winter/southern summer begin at Ls 270°. <p></p>Ls 137° occurs in the middle of this month (November 2006). The pictures show how Mars appeared to the MOC wide angle cameras at a previous Ls 137° in March 2001. The six views are centered on the Tharsis region (upper left), Acidalia and Mare Eyrthraeum (upper right), Syrtis Major and Hellas (middle left), Elysium and Mare Cimmeria (middle right), the north pole (lower left), and the south pole (lower right).</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01888" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01888: Mars at Ls 137° sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01888: Mars at Ls 137° sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01888: Mars at Ls 137°
<h1>PIA01928: Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout</h1><div class="PIA01928" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>During the last week of September and the first week or so of October 2006, scientific instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were turned on to acquire test information during the transition phase leading up to full science operations. The mission's primary science phase will begin the first week of November 2006, following superior conjunction. (Superior conjunction is where a planet goes behind the sun as viewed from Earth.) Since it is very difficult to communicate with a spacecraft when it is close to the sun as seen from Earth, this checkout of the instruments was crucial to being ready for the primary science phase of the mission.</p><p>Throughout the transition-phase testing, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) acquired terminator (transition between nighttime and daytime) to terminator swaths of color images on every dayside orbit, as the spacecraft moved northward in its orbit. The south polar region was deep in winter shadow, but the north polar region was illuminated the entire Martian day. During the primary mission, such swaths will be assembled into global maps that portray the state of the Martian atmosphere -- its weather -- as seen every day and at every place at about 3 p.m. local solar time. After the transition phase completed, most of the instruments were turned off, but the Mars Climate Sounder and MARCI have been left on. Their data will be recorded and played back to Earth following the communications blackout associated with conjunction.</p><p>Combined with wide-angle image mosaics taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor at 2 p.m. local solar time, the MARCI maps will be used to track motions of clouds.</p><p>This image is a composite mosaic of four polar views of Mars, taken at midnight, 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. local Martian time. This is possible because during summer the sun is always shining in the polar region. It shows the mostly water-ice perennial cap (white area), sitting atop the north polar layered materials (light tan immediately adjacent to the ice), and the dark circumpolar dunes. This view shows the region poleward of about 72 degrees north latitude. The data were acquired at about 900 meters (about 3,000 feet) per pixel. Three channels are shown here, centered on wavelengths of 425 nanometers, 550 nanometers and 600 nanometers.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01928" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01928: Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01928: Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01928: Mars Polar Cap During Transition Phase Instrument Checkout
<h1>PIA01929: Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout</h1><div class="PIA01929" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>In October 2006, Northern Mars is near the middle of its summer, and the continued southern movement of the sun will have two main impacts on imaging: The illumination will get worse as eventually the entire polar region will be in darkness during winter, and northern hemispheric dust storms and polar cloudiness will obscure the surface. Because now is the best time to be imaging the north polar region until 2008, the team using the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is devoting much of its imaging resources to acquiring images of the polar region. This image shows a north polar mosaic from the orbiter's Mars Color Imager inscribed with rectangles indicating the coverage acquired by Context Camera in less than two weeks of September and October, 2006. Following conjunction (when Mars is nearly behind the sun from Earth's perspective), the team will devote as much of November as the atmosphere permits to imaging the polar region.Marked in red on this map is the footprint of the Context Camera image shown at <a href="/catalog/PIA01930">PIA01930</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01929" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA01929: Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA01929: Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA01929: Map of Context Camera's North Polar Coverage During Checkout
<h1>PIA02000: Acidalia and Chryse Plains, Mars</h1><div class="PIA02000" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Somewhere down there sits the Mars Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover. This Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera view of the red planet shows the region that includes Ares Vallis and the Chryse Plains upon which both Mars Pathfinder and the Viking 1 landed in 1997 and 1976, respectively. Acidalia Planitia is the dark surface that dominates the center left. The Pathfinder site is immediately south of Acidalia, just left of center in this view. Also shown--the north polar cap is at the top, and Arabia Terra and Sinus Meridiani are to the right. The bluish-white features are clouds. This is a color composite of 9 red and 9 blue image strips taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera on 9 successive orbits from pole-to-pole during the calibration phase of the mission in March 1999. The color is computer-enhanced and is not shown as it would actually appear to the human eye.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02000" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02000: Acidalia and Chryse Plains, Mars sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02000: Acidalia and Chryse Plains, Mars sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02000: Acidalia and Chryse Plains, Mars
<h1>PIA02004: Syrtis Major and Arabia Terra, Mars</h1><div class="PIA02004" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has, in fact, three cameras. The narrow angle system obtains monochrome (black-and-white) super-high resolution views of the red planet, while the wide angle system obtains regional and global views in both the red and blue portions of the visible spectrum (to make a color image, the red and blue are averaged to obtain the green channel). The picture shown here is a composite of 9 color strips taken by the MOC on 9 successive orbits from pole-to-pole over the planet during the calibration phase of the mission in March 1999. The large, circular bright region that dominates the scene is Arabia Terra. Syrtis Major is the dark region toward the lower right. The north polar cap is visible at the top, and the bright feature at the lower right is the Hellas Basin. The color in this picture is computer-enhanced and is not shown as it would actually appear to the human eye.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02004" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02004: Syrtis Major and Arabia Terra, Mars sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02004: Syrtis Major and Arabia Terra, Mars sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02004: Syrtis Major and Arabia Terra, Mars
<h1>PIA02005: Tharsis Volcanoes and Valles Marineris, Mars</h1><div class="PIA02005" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>It is northern summer on Mars and clouds are very common over the famous Tharsis volcanoes during the afternoon. At the far left, a white patchy cloud denotes the location of Olympus Mons. Ascraeus Mons is under the brightest cloud toward the center left, but the volcanoes Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons (toward lower left below Ascraeus Mons) have much less cloud cover. The patch of clouds toward the upper left mark the location of the Alba Patera volcano. The Valles Marineris trough system--so long that it would stretch across North America--is seen in the lower third of this picture. This is a color composite of 9 red and 9 blue image strips taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera on 9 successive orbits from pole-to-pole during the calibration phase of the mission in March 1999. The color is computer-enhanced and is not shown as it would actually appear to the human eye.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02005" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02005: Tharsis Volcanoes and Valles Marineris, Mars sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02005: Tharsis Volcanoes and Valles Marineris, Mars sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02005: Tharsis Volcanoes and Valles Marineris, Mars
<h1>PIA02006: Apollinaris Patera, Mars</h1><div class="PIA02006" lang="en" style="width:429px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This month (April 1999), the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) passed over the Apollinaris Patera volcano and captured a patch of bright clouds hanging over its summit in the early martian afternoon. This ancient volcano is located near the equator and--based on observations from the 1970s Viking Orbiters--is thought to be as much as 5 kilometers (3 miles) high. The caldera--the semi-circular crater at the volcano summit--is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) across.</p><p>The color in this picture was derived from the MOC red and blue wide angle camera systems and does not represent true color as it would appear to the human eye (that is, if a human were in a position to be orbiting around the red planet). Illumination is from the upper left.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02006" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02006: Apollinaris Patera, Mars sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02006: Apollinaris Patera, Mars sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02006: Apollinaris Patera, Mars
<h1>PIA02041: Mars at Ls 25°: Syrtis Major</h1><div class="PIA02041" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>21 March 2006<br />This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 25° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 25° occurs in mid-March 2006. The picture shows the Syrtis Major face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.</p><p>Season: Northern Spring </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02041" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02041: Mars at Ls 25°: Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02041: Mars at Ls 25°: Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02041: Mars at Ls 25°: Syrtis Major
<h1>PIA02045: May 1999 Dust Storm in Valles Marineris</h1><div class="PIA02045" lang="en" style="width:558px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Mars Global Surveyor's (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) captured this view of a dust storm within the Ius and Melas Chasms of the Valles Marineris trough system on May 16, 1999.</p><p>The dust storm is seen in the lower 1/3 of the image. It occurs at the junction between eastern Ius Chasma and western Melas Chasma. The apparent motion of the storm is approximately from the south (bottom of image) toward the north. The dust cloud forms a sharp front along its northern margin, which is seen along the north wall of Ius and Melas Chasms--in fact, at the time the image was taken, the dust had advanced up over the north wall of Melas Chasma (upper portion of lower right third of image) and was advancing across the upland that separates this chasm from western Candor Chasma. For a clear-atmosphere view of western Candor and Melas Chasms, see <a href="http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/3_25_99_vmcolor/index.html">"Western Melas and Candor Chasms, Valles Marineris, MOC2-105, 25 March 1999"</a>.</p><p>For scale, note that the large crater south of Hebes Chasma, Perrotin, is about 95 kilometers (59 miles) across. Bluish-white clouds in the image are interpreted to consist of water ice. The pink/red clouds of the dust storm occur closer to the ground, at a lower altitude than the water ice clouds.</p><p>One of the most interesting aspects of this dust storm is that Valles Marineris was observed to have a dust storm at exactly the same time of year, one Martian year ago. During its approach to Mars, MOC obtained a picture of the planet on July 2,1997, just prior to the Mars Pathfinder landing. At the time, it was winter in the southern hemisphere, and dust clouds were observed within Valles Marineris. The picture is seen in <a href="http://www.msss.com/mars/global_surveyor/camera/images/c9/index.html">"Mars Orbiter Camera Views Mars Pathfinder Landing Site,MOC2-1, 3 July 1997"</a>. It will be interesting to see if similar storms occur within the Valles Marineris 1 and 2 Mars years hence. The next times will be in early April 2001 and mid-February 2003.</p><p>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.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02045" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02045: May 1999 Dust Storm in Valles Marineris sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02045: May 1999 Dust Storm in Valles Marineris sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02045: May 1999 Dust Storm in Valles Marineris
<h1>PIA02049: Regional View of the Tharsis Volcanoes</h1><div class="PIA02049" lang="en" style="width:768px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><br>The volcanoes of the Tharsis region are highlighted by this color image mosaic obtained on a single martian afternoon by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. Olympus Mons dominates the upper left corner--it is one of the largest known volcanoes and is nearly 550 km (340 miles) wide. The grayscale image on the right shows the name of each volcano in the scene.<p>The white or bluish-white features are clouds. Clouds are common over the larger Tharsis volcanoes in mid-afternoon. The four largest volcanoes are more than 15 km (9 mi) high. Viewed from Earth by telescope before any spacecraft had visited the planet, astronomers often described a "W"-shaped white cloud over the Tharsis region. This "W" was actually the result of seeing the combined effects of bright clouds hanging over the Ascraeus, Pavonis, Arsia, and Olympus volcanoes. The clouds result when warm air containing water vapor rises up the slopes of each volcano, cools at the higher altitude, and causes the water vapor to freeze and form a cloud of ice crystals.<p>Pavonis Mons lies on the martian equator, north is up, and sunlight is illuminating the scene from the left. The picture is a mosaic of red and blue filter images taken on three consecutive orbits. The slightly blurred appearance of the left side of Arsia Mons results from distortion toward the edges of the images used to make the mosaic. To remove the blur, an image obtained on another day would be added to the mosaic--however, this image would not match well because the cloud patterns will have changed by the next day. Mosaics such as the one shown here are used to monitor changes in martian weather and to plan future observations.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02049" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02049: Regional View of the Tharsis Volcanoes sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02049: Regional View of the Tharsis Volcanoes sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02049: Regional View of the Tharsis Volcanoes
<h1>PIA02066: Global Weather</h1><div class="PIA02066" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Twelve orbits a day provide the MOC wide angle cameras a global "snapshot" of weather patterns across the planet. Here, bluish-white water ice clouds hang above the Tharsis volcanoes. The map is a mosaic of 24 images taken on a single northern summer day in April 1999.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02066" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02066: Global Weather sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02066: Global Weather sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02066: Global Weather
<h1>PIA02067: Dust storm</h1><div class="PIA02067" lang="en" style="width:720px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>MOC wide angle cameras captured a dust storm advancing across the northern plains toward Tempe Terra on August 22, 1998.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02067" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02067: Dust storm sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02067: Dust storm sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02067: Dust storm
<h1>PIA02079: Tharsis and Marineris</h1><div class="PIA02079" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image is extracted from the global view shown in Slide #1. It features the Tharsis volcanoes (mostly covered by bluish-white water ice clouds) and the Valles Marineris trough system (to the right). This is a mosaic of global color images obtained on a single martian day in April 1999.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02079" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02079: Tharsis and Marineris sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02079: Tharsis and Marineris sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02079: Tharsis and Marineris
<h1>PIA02096: Southern Mars: It's Spring!</h1><div class="PIA02096" lang="en" style="width:552px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>August 2, 1999, marks the spring equinox for the martian southern hemisphere. It is also the start of autumn for regions north of the equator. Winter in the south has finally come to a close, and the seasonal frosts of the wintertime south polar cap are retreating. Small, local dust storms frequently occur along the margins of the polar cap, as the colder air blowing off the cap moves northward into warmer regions.</p><p>The wide angle camera view of Mars shown here was obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera in late July 1999, about 1 week before the start of southern spring. The frosty, retreating south polar cap (white) is seen in the lower quarter of the image, and wisps of dust storm clouds (grayish-orange in this view) occur just above the cap at the lower left. The southern most of the large environmental changes volcanoes, Arsia Mons, is seen at the upper left. Arsia Mons is about 350 kilometers(~220 miles) across.</p><p>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02096" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02096: Southern Mars: It's Spring! sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02096: Southern Mars: It's Spring! sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02096: Southern Mars: It's Spring!
<h1>PIA02150: Mars at Ls 357°</h1><div class="PIA02150" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>31 January 2006<br />This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 357° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 357° occurred in mid-January 2006. The picture shows the south polar region of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.</p><p>Season: Northern Winter/Southern Summer </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02150" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02150: Mars at Ls 357° sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02150: Mars at Ls 357° sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02150: Mars at Ls 357°
<h1>PIA02164: Arsia and Phobos</h1><div class="PIA02164" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA02164_fig1.jpg"></a><b><br />Annotated View of Arsia and Phobos</b></p><p>6 February 2006<br />This pair of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) color images shows early autumn clouds over the Arsia Mons volcano, plus the shadow of the innermost of the two martain moons, Phobos. The picture on the left is taken from the MOC daily global map acquired at 7.5 km (~4.7 mi) per pixel on 28 January 2006, about a week after the start of southern autumn. The picture on the right was taken at the same time, but at a higher resolution of 489 m (1604 ft) per pixel. </p><p>Both pictures are composites of MOC red and blue wide angle images, and both are oriented such that north is up and east is to the right. Arsia Mons and the other large Tharsis volcanoes commonly develop afternoon orographic (i.e., topographically-controlled) water ice clouds at this time of year. The equatorial Tharsis volcano, Pavonis Mons, is also under a deck of water ice clouds; it is located toward the upper right corner of the left, lower-resolution image. </p><p>Sunlight glints off the dusty surface and the clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere, producing the bright diagonal streak located just southeast (lower right) of Arsia Mons. A water ice haze is seen on the left side of the lower-resolution image. The dark oval to the northeast of Arsia Mons, as noted above, is the shadow of Phobos.</p><p>Location near: 9°S, 121°W <br />Image width: 100 km scale bar = ~62 mi; 300 km bar = ~186 mi <br />Illumination from: upper left <br />Season: Southern Autumn </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02164" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02164: Arsia and Phobos sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02164: Arsia and Phobos sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02164: Arsia and Phobos
<h1>PIA02165: Mars at Ls 12°: Tharsis</h1><div class="PIA02165" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>7 February 2006<br />This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 12° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 12° occurs in mid-February 2006. The picture shows the Tharsis face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.</p><p>Season: Northern Winter/Southern Summer </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02165" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02165: Mars at Ls 12°: Tharsis sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02165: Mars at Ls 12°: Tharsis sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02165: Mars at Ls 12°: Tharsis
<h1>PIA02181: Mars at Ls 12°: Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum</h1><div class="PIA02181" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>15 February 2006<br />This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 12° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 12° occurs in mid-February 2006. The picture shows the Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.</p><p>Season: Northern Winter/Southern Summer </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02181" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02181: Mars at Ls 12°: Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02181: Mars at Ls 12°: Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02181: Mars at Ls 12°: Acidalia/Mare Erythraeum
<h1>PIA02195: Mars at Ls 12°: Syrtis Major</h1><div class="PIA02195" lang="en" style="width:640px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>21 February 2006<br />This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 12° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 12° occurs in mid-February 2006. The picture shows the Syrtis Major face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.</p><p>Season: Northern Winter/Southern Summer </p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02195" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02195: Mars at Ls 12°: Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02195: Mars at Ls 12°: Syrtis Major sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02195: Mars at Ls 12°: Syrtis Major
<h1>PIA02305: Late Summer Storms Over the Mars North Polar Region</h1><div class="PIA02305" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;">Storm clouds have been brewing over the north polar cap of Mars since the last week of June 1999. During the month of July, summer was ending; autumn began at the start of August. The wide angle cameras of the Mars Global Surveyor(MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) have been documenting the changing weather patterns of the red planet nearly every day since the Mapping Phase of the mission began in March 1999. These images are showing many more details about martian weather than had been previously recorded. Mars is a dynamic planet, with weather systems as complex and exciting as the Earth's.<p>The four still-frame images (above) show the evolution of a storm system that developed over the martian north polar region on June 30, 1999. Each picture was taken approximately 2 hours later than the previous. The north polar ice cap is the white feature at the center of each frame. Clouds that appear white consist mainly of water ice, clouds that appear orange/brown contain dust.<p>This particular storm system lasted well into the next day--July 1, 1999. A total of 23 red and 23 blue camera images were used to create a time-lapsed "movie" that displays the development and evolution of this storm over the two-day period. Of great interest are the "curling" of the clouds behind the largest of the storms--this indicates a flow vortex that follows the storm front that is moving toward the top/upper right of the frame--and the correlation of white water-ice clouds with orange/brown dust clouds. High surface winds must have raised dust and mixed it with water vapor in the air over the summer-time polar cap to create this effect. To view the "movie," click or download to your desktop the following<a href="/figures/PIA02305.mpg"> 2.2 MByte MPG file.</a><p>Storms similar to those shown here were observed to continue throughout the month of July and into August. Over the next several months, the north polar cap will grow dark as the region transitions through autumn and into winter. When northern winter begins in December 1999, this region will be dark and obscured by clouds.<p>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02305" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02305: Late Summer Storms Over the Mars North Polar Region sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02305: Late Summer Storms Over the Mars North Polar Region sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02305: Late Summer Storms Over the Mars North Polar Region
<h1>PIA02307: TES overlayed on MOLA DEM</h1><div class="PIA02307" lang="en" style="width:551px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This image is TES thermal data (Orbit 222) overlayed on the MOLA DEM. The color scale is TES T18-T25, which is a cold spot index. The grey scale is MOLA elevation in kilometers. Most cold spots can be attributed to surface spectral emissivity effects. Regions that are colored black-violet-blue have near unity emissivity and are coarse grained CO2. Regions that are yellow-red are fined grained CO2. The red-white spot located approximately 300W85N is our most likely candidate for a CO2 snow storm.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02307" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02307: TES overlayed on MOLA DEM sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02307: TES overlayed on MOLA DEM sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02307: TES overlayed on MOLA DEM
<h1>PIA02325: Have a Nice Spring! MOC Revisits "Happy Face" Crater</h1><div class="PIA02325" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Smile! Spring has sprung in the martian southern hemisphere. With it comes the annual retreat of the winter polar frost cap. This view of "Happy Face Crater"--officially named "Galle Crater"--shows patches of white water ice frost in and around the crater's south-facing slopes. Slopes that face south will retain frost longer than north-facing slopes because they do not receive as much sunlight in early spring. This picture is a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) red and blue wide angle cameras. The wide angle cameras were designed to monitor the changing weather, frost, and wind patterns on Mars. Galle Crater is located on the east rim of the Argyre Basin and is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. In this picture, illumination is from the upper left and north is up.</p><p>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02325" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA02325: Have a Nice Spring! MOC Revisits "Happy Face" Crater sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA02325: Have a Nice Spring! MOC Revisits "Happy Face" Crater sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA02325: Have a Nice Spring! MOC Revisits "Happy Face" Crater