MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-454, 16 August 2003

Four days ago, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Picture of the Day featured a MOC wide angle view of Peridier Crater and the dark feature on its southwestern floor. Today's Picture of the Day shows a MOC narrow angle view of a portion of the dark area in southwest Peridier Crater. Some of the dark material in this crater resolves at higher resolution into a field of small sand dunes. The dune slip faces--the steepest slopes on the dunes-face toward the southwest (lower left), indicating that the dominant winds that have shaped these dunes blow from the northeast. The picture has a resolution of about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) per pixel; it covers an area only 1.1 km (0.7 mi) wide. The image is somewhat grainy because it was taken through a late northern summer hazy atmosphere in April 2003. The image is located in southwest Peridier Crater near 25.3°N, 276.5° W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.