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PIA04524: Argyre Dust Devil Tracks
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a plethora of dark streaks thought to have been created by the passage of dust devils on the the floor of Argyre Basin, Mars.
 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:  1995 x 2993 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04524.tif (5.457 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04524.jpg (573.1 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:

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-363, 17 May 2003

This summertime Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) view of the floor of Argyre Basin shows a plethora of dark streaks thought to have been created by the passage of dust devils. Dust devils are vortices of wind--just as a tornado is a vortex of wind associated with stormy weather on Earth, and the spiraling of water down a bathtub drain is a vortex in a liquid. Dust devils usually form on Mars on relatively calm, quiet, spring and summer afternoons. The passage of a dust devil picks up and disturbs the thin coatings of dust on the martian surface, forming streaks that mark the path that the moving dust devil took. This picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is located near 48.5°S, 43.0°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2003-05-19