[meteorite-list] Mars Global Surveyor Image of the Week - November 13, 2006

[Ron Baalke]

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR 
Image of the Week
November 13, 2006

The following new image taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on
the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is now available:

o Mars at LS 137 Degrees (Released 07 November 2006)
  http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/11/13

Image Caption:

These images capture what Mars typically looks like in mid-afternoon 
at Ls 137 degrees. In other words, with the exception of occasional 
differences in weather and polar frost patterns, this is what the 
red planet looks like this month (November 2006).

Six views are shown, including the two polar regions. These are 
composites of 24-26 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera 
(MOC) daily global mapping images acquired at red and blue 
wavelengths. The 'hole' over the south pole is an area where no 
images were obtained, because this polar region is enveloped in 
wintertime darkness.

Presently, it is summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in 
the southern hemisphere. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the 
time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360 degrees around the Sun in 1 Mars 
year. The year begins at Ls 0 degrees, the start of northern spring and 
southern autumn. Northern summer/southern winter begins at Ls 90 degrees, 
northern autumn/southern spring start at Ls 180 degrees, and northern 
winter/southern summer begin at Ls 270 degrees.

Ls 137 degrees occurs in the middle of this month (November 2006). The 
pictures show how Mars appeared to the MOC wide angle cameras at 
a previous Ls 137 degrees in March 2001. The six views are centered on 
the Tharsis region (upper left), Acidalia and Mare Eyrthraeum 
(upper right), Syrtis Major and Hellas (middle left), Elysium and 
Mare Cimmeria (middle right), the north pole (lower left), and 
the south pole (lower right). 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html

Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been
in Mars orbit since September 1997.   It began its primary
mapping mission on March 8, 1999.  Mars Global Surveyor is the 
first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as 
the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, DC.  Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC
using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates
the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global
Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin
Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.