A Mid-northern Summersouthern Winter
by Stocktrek Images
Title
A Mid-northern Summersouthern Winter
Artist
Stocktrek Images
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
February 14, 2003 - A Mid-Northern Summer/Southern Winter's Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) began its daily global imaging campaign four years ago, on March 9, 1999. Since that time, slightly more than 2 full Martian years have elapsed, and MOC has obtained a complete daily record of the red planet's ever-changing weather patterns. The six views of Mars shown here are a composite of the 24 daily global images acquired by MOC on February 14, 2003. At this time, it was the middle of summer in the northern hemisphere, and the middle of winter in the south. Taken together, the six views show the entire planet, its albedo (bright and dark) features, polar frosts, and cloud patterns. Water-ice clouds dominate the martian atmosphere over the tropical and sub-tropical latitudes, while orographically-generated (i.e. those associated with high-standing topography) water-ice clouds hang over each of the large volcanoes of the Tharsis and Elysium regions (see top-left, top-center, bottom-right).In the north polar region, the residual water-ice cap is fully exposed. In the southern hemisphere, the winter-time seasonal carbon dioxide frost cap can be seen, extending from the south pole (which is in darkness and not seen in these images) northward to 50°S latitude. In the deep Hellas Basin (an ancient, giant impact scar seen as the bright elliptical feature at the bottom of the bottom-center image), the winter-time cap extends northward to 31°S because the lower elevation permits carbon dioxide to freeze at slightly higher temperatures than at the high elevations elsewhere in the southern hemisphere.
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December 7th, 2011
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