PIA07308: Big Dust Devils


Big Dust Devils

Caption:

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.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Instrument Host Mars Global Surveyor
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
Detector
Extra Keywords Dust, Grayscale, Shadow
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2005-01-28
Date in Caption 2004-01-28
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07308
Identifier PIA07308