Wind and Sand - False Color

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Caption:

Context image

The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today’s false color image shows part of the region between Terra Cimmeria and Aeolis Planum. The bottom half of the image is a surface that has been etched by wind action. To form the fine scale grooves, the surface material must be easy to erode. In the hills at the top of the image the same fine scale groove features don’t exist. In this region the hills are partially surrounded by material that is blue in this false color combination. Dark blue is interpreted to be basaltic sand. It is possible that the sand in the top of the image was scoured from the surface in the bottom of the image.

Orbit Number: 68393 Latitude: -7.61871 Longitude: 150.994 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2017-05-15 11:31

Background Info:

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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