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Early Autumn Dust Storm

April 27, 2004
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows sporadic, localized dust storms, common at high southern latitudes on Mars in early autumn. Large boulders and small knobs are evident in a crater in southern Noachis Terra.

27 April 2004
Sporadic, localized dust storms are common at high southern latitudes in early autumn. The most recent autumn for the southern hemisphere began on 5 March 2004. This late March 2004 narrow angle camera image was acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) as it passed over a crater in southern Noachis Terra near 59.6°S, 2.7°W. The northern portion of the image is clear enough that details such as large boulders or small knobs can be seen. The rest of the image, however, shows billowy clouds of dust being raised from the surface. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left.

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