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South Polar Clouds

April 6, 2011
Polar surface winds can reach high velocities. These winds can cause clouds to form when the winds flow into troughs and become chaotic. This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows trough clouds as linear bands.
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Polar surface winds can reach high velocities. These winds can cause clouds to form when the winds flow into troughs and become chaotic. This VIS image shows trough clouds as linear bands.

Orbit Number: 40916 Latitude: -86.4592 Longitude: 100.949 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-03-06 07:28

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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