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PIA04285: Tharsis Limb Cloud
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows clouds common in late spring over martian terrain located southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. Arsia Mons is the dark, oval feature near the limb.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
 Instrument:  Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) 
 Product Size:  1542 x 1892 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1207  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04285.tif (8.768 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04285.jpg (121.5 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Annotated image of Tharsis Limb Cloud
Annotated image of
Tharsis Limb Cloud

7 September 2005
This composite of red and blue Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired on 6 July 2005 shows an isolated water ice cloud extending more than 30 kilometers (more than 18 miles) above the martian surface. Clouds such as this are common in late spring over the terrain located southwest of the Arsia Mons volcano. Arsia Mons is the dark, oval feature near the limb, just to the left of the "T" in the "Tharsis Montes" label. The dark, nearly circular feature above the "S" in "Tharsis" is the volcano, Pavonis Mons, and the other dark circular feature, above and to the right of "s" in "Montes," is Ascraeus Mons. Illumination is from the left/lower left.

Season: Northern Autumn/Southern Spring

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-09-07