18,812 New MGS MOC Images (E07-E12) Archived and Online
With the release this month (October 2002) of the latest installment
of 18,812 images, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera
(MOC) passes another major milestone: more than 100,000 images have
been validated and archived with the NASA Planetary Data System. The
total number of archived images now available on-line is 112,218--more
than twice the number of pictures acquired by the two Viking orbiters in
1976-1980. These pictures, from MOC extended mission subphases E07
through E12, were acquired August 2001 through January 2002. Every six
months, after a six-month, labor-intensive archiving effort, the MOC team
releases six months-worth of validated data to the NASA Planetary
Data System.
Mars Global Surveyor is now in its sixth year orbiting the red planet.
MGS reached Mars on 12 September 1997. The first MOC images were
obtained on 15 September 1997.
The two pictures shown here were taken by the MOC narrow angle
(high resolution) camera and "colorized" by applying the colors of Mars
obtained by the MOC wide angle cameras. Both pictures show gullies on
the walls of two different meteor impact craters that occur in Newton Basin
in Sirenum Terra, Mars. The picture on the left, showing gullies in a crater
at 42.4°S, 158.2°W, exhibits patches of wintertime frost on the crater
wall, and dark-toned sand dunes on the floor. The picture on the right,
from a crater at 39.0°S, 166.1°W, is one of the highest-resolution images
obtained from Mars. It's resolution is 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel--objects
the size of school buses can be resolved in the full size image. The gullies
in these craters originate at a specific layer and may have formed by
release of groundwater to the martian surface in geologically recent times.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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