Lycus Sulci

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Caption:

Released 6 June 2003

The remarkably rugged terrain that is part of a massive lobe of material extending over 700 km from the basal scarp of Olympus Mons is called sulci, which means furrows or grooves. This Latin word especially applies to the furrows on the surface of the brain, a definition that is visually fitting in the case of this image. The furrows are roughly a half to one km deep. Note the abundance of dark-toned slope streaks, which demonstrates that this is a region with significant dust accumulation.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 21.3, Longitude 213.6 East (146.4 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.

Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.

Background Info:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, 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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