Crater Dunes - False Color

This VIS image shows the floor of an unnamed crater in Arabia Terra. The peaks in the center of the crater floor were formed by the rebound of melted rock at the time of the impact. There are individual sand dunes in the southern half of the crater. The dark blue tone in this filter combination indicates that the dunes are made of basaltic sand.

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.

Orbit Number: 60976 Latitude: 10.0004 Longitude: 8.21209 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-09-12 12:29

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.