PIA07308: Big Dust Devils
 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:  512 x 820 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems
 Producer ID:  MOC2-985
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA07308.tif (296 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA07308.jpg (46.88 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:

28 January 2004
Northern Amazonis Planitia is famous for its frequent, large (> 1 km high) dust devils. They occur throughout the spring and summer seasons, and can be detected from orbit, even at the ~240 meters (~278 yards) per pixel resolution of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle instruments. This red wide angle image shows a plethora of large dust devils. The arrow points to an example. Shadows cast by the towering columns of swirling dust point away from the direction of sunlight illumination (sun is coming from the left/lower left). This December 2004 scene covers an area more than 125 km (> 78 mi) across and is located near 37°N, 154°W.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-01-28