Near Polar Dunes

Today's VIS image shows a sand sheet located on the floor of an unnamed crater just north of the edge of the South polar ice cap. The morphology of the dune is different from other sand dunes in lower latitudes. The difference is due to ice cementing the sand grains, making the movement of sand materials almost impossible. Only during the summer season the very surface loses this interstitial ice enough for small movements during windy conditions.

Orbit Number: 92704 Latitude: -71.2469 Longitude: 144.353 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-11-07 12:42

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.