New Images of Dust Devils, Dunes and 'The Face'

Pictures of intriguing Martian features such as dust storms, dust devils, 3-D sand dunes, a recent image of "the face," and dark streaks that may be caused by dust avalanches have been released by the imaging team for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft that have been taken during the extended mission phase that began February 1, 2001.

The newly released images are products of the main objectives for the camera team during the extended mission, including:

- Continued daily monitoring of Martian weather, storms, and polar cap changes;

- Looking for changes caused by frost, wind, slope movements, and gully action with the high-resolution camera;

- The opportunity to take a second look at features previously seen by the camera by turning and pointing the spacecraft to provide "3-D" (stereoscopic) views of certain areas;

- Collecting pictures of other geologic features of interest, including sites being considered for the two 2003 Mars Exploration Rover landings.

The images are available at these sites:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/extended_may2001/
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs

Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Mars Orbiter Camera is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.