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Storm Chaser on Mars

March 20, 2012

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Catches a Twister in Action.

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Seen are six views of the Nili Fossae region of Mars captured by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, one of the instruments aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter...
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This image shows six views of the Nili Fossae region of Mars captured by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM..
Six Views of Nili Fossae, as Seen by MRO's CRISM
Three images of the same location taken at different times on Mars show seasonal activity causing sand avalanches and ripple changes on a Martian dune.
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Three images of the same location taken at different times on Mars show seasonal activity causing sand avalanches and ripple changes on a Martian dune.
Seasonal Changes in Northern Mars Dune Field
This HiRISE image shows a crater approximately 11 km (7 miles) in diameter, located in Acidalia Planitia, part of the Northern Plains. Several features in and around this crater are suggestive of f...
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HiRISE image (PSP_001942_2310) shows a crater approximately 11 km (7 miles) in diameter, located in Acidalia Planitia, part of the Northern Plains. Several features in and around this crater are suggestive of fluids and ice at and near the surface. The south-looking (or equator facing) walls of this crater are cut by numerous gullies such as the ones shown in this image's cutout (500 x 600 m or 550 x 650 yards), with well developed alcoves, sinuous channels, and terminal fan deposits. These gullies seem to originate at the same height, suggesting that the carving agent may have emanated from one single layer exposed in the crater's wall. Contrastingly, no gullies are observed in the north-looking (or pole facing) wall of this crater. Terrestrial gullies very similar to the ones shown in this image are produced by surface water. The arrows in the cutout show fissures that may indicate detachment of surficial materials possibly held together by subsurface ice, sliding en masse down the crater's wall. The muted topography of the crater and its surroundings, the relatively shallow floor (300 m or 330 yards), the convex slope of its walls-all are consistent with ice being present under the surface, mixed with rocks and soil. Ice would have acted as a lubricant, facilitating the flow of rocks and soils and hence smoothing landscape's features such as ridges and craters' rims. The concentric and radial fissures in the crater's floor may indicate decrease of volume due to loss of underground ice. Piles of rocks aligned along these fissures and arranged forming polygons are similar to features observed in terrestrial periglacial regions such as Antarctica. Antarctica's features are produced by repeated expansion and contraction of subsurface soil and ice, due to seasonal temperature oscillations. The funnel-shaped depressions visible in the crater's floor could be collapse pits, further evidence of ice decay; alternatively, they could be smoothed-out impact craters.
Signs of Fluids and Ice in Acidalia Planitia
This image is of a portion of the Southern plains region within Hellas, the largest impact basin on Mars, with a diameter of about 2300 kilometers (1400 miles).
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This image is of a portion of the Southern plains region within Hellas, the largest impact basin on Mars, with a diameter of about 2300 kilometers (1400 miles).
Pitted Landforms in Southern Hellas Planitia
This observation shows a wrinkle ridge in Solis Planum, located in the Thaumasia region of Mars, a high-elevation volcanic plain located south of the Valles Marineris canyon system and east of the ...
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This observation shows a wrinkle ridge in Solis Planum, located in the Thaumasia region of Mars, a high-elevation volcanic plain located south of the Valles Marineris canyon system and east of the Tharsis volcanic complex. Solis Planum contains some of the most distinct and well studied arrays of wrinkle ridges on Mars. Wrinkle ridges are long, winding topographic highs and are often characterized by a broad arch topped with a crenulated ridge. These features have been identified on many other planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mercury, and Venus. On Mars, they are many tens to hundreds of kilometers long, tens of kilometers wide, and have a relief of a few hundred meters. Wrinkle ridges are most commonly believed to form from horizontal compression or shortening of the crust due to faulting and are often located in volcanic plains. They commonly have asymmetrical cross sectional profiles and an offset in elevation on either side of the ridge. Large dunes are also visible bordering the wrinkle ridge. The reddish colors seen in this image most likely indicate the presence of dust (or indurated dust) and the darker, bluish colors most likely indicate the presence of larger rocks and boulders on the wrinkle ridge.
Wrinkle Ridge in Solis Planum
This pair of images covers one of many sites on Mars where researchers use the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to study changes in gullies on slopes. Changes such as the ones v...
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This pair of images covers one of many sites on Mars where researchers use the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to study changes in gullies on slopes. Changes such as the ones visible in deposits near the lower end of this gully occur during winter and early spring on Mars.
Changes Near Downhill End of a Martian Gully
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured these sand ripples and the large dune (at center) on Feb. 9, 2009. Color has been a...
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sand ripples and a large dune on Mars
HiRISE Finds a Dune and Ripples
Download a PDF of the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Fact Sheet.
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MRO fact sheet
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Fact Sheet
On Mars the seasonal polar caps are composed of dry ice (carbon dioxide). In the springtime as the sun shines on the ice, it turns from solid to gas and causes erosion of the surface
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On Mars the seasonal polar caps are composed of dry ice (carbon dioxide). In the springtime as the sun shines on the ice, it turns from solid to gas and causes erosion of the surface
Dry Ice Gone Wild
This map shows five locations where fresh impact cratering has excavated water ice from just beneath the surface of Mars (sites 1 through 5) and the Viking Lander 2 landing site (VL2), in the conte...
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Expected Depths to Ice, Mid-Latitude Northern Mars
Expected Depths to Ice, Mid-Latitude Northern Mars
This stereo view shows an area on Mars where narrow rock ridges intersect at angles forming corners of polygons. It combines two observations from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Or...
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This stereo view shows an area on Mars where narrow rock ridges intersect at angles forming corners of polygons. It combines two observations from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and appears three-dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses with the red lens on the left.
Blade-Like Martian Walls Outline Polygons (Stereo)
Getting a spacecraft to Mars is no walk in the park - as launch engineers are well aware. But when the spacecraft in question is among the largest ever sent to the red planet, there are specific ch...
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Challenges of Getting to Mars: Heavy Lifting
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Heavy Lifting
The long, sinuous raised ridges on this fan of material are thought to be inverted stream channels. These ridges may have been low-lying streambeds that hardened and then turned into ridges when th...
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The long, sinuous raised ridges on this fan of material are thought to be inverted stream channels.
Fan in the Aeolis Region (3-D)
By analyzing radar images like the one at top of this montage, scientists discovered evidence for a past ice age in the northern polar ice cap of Mars.
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By analyzing radar images like the one at top of this montage, scientists discovered evidence for a past ice age in the northern polar ice cap of Mars.
Signs of a Martian Ice Age
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a close-up of a trough, along with channels draining into the depression. On the floor of the trough is some grooved material typically seen in...
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Formations in Context (or, what is it?)
Formations in Context (or, what is it?)
This map of Mars shows relative locations of three types of findings related to salt or frozen water, plus a new type of finding that may be related to both salt and water.
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This map of Mars shows relative locations of three types of findings related to salt or frozen water, plus a new type of finding that may be related to both salt and water.
Ice, Salt and Warm-Season Flows on Mars
Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
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Artist concept of glacier on Mars.
Artist concept of Glaciers on Mars
Researchers estimating the amount of carbon held in the ground at the largest known carbonate-containing deposit on Mars utilized data from three different NASA Mars orbiters.
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Researchers estimating the amount of carbon held in the ground at the largest known carbonate-containing deposit on Mars utilized data from five instruments on three different NASA Mars orbiters, including physical properties from THEMIS (left) and mineral information from CRISM (right).
Multiple Instruments Used for Mars Carbon Estimate
Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.
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Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.
Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter en route to Mars.
This image from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact scar on Mars made by pieces of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that the spacecraft shed just before entering the Mar...
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This image from the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an impact scar on Mars made by pieces of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that the spacecraft shed just before entering the Martian atmosphere.
Impact Scars from MSL Cruise Stage and Two Balance Weights (Figure 1)
This image shows spidery channels eroded into Martian ground. It is a Sept. 12, 2016, example from HiRISE camera high-resolution observations of more than 20 places that were chosen in 2016 on the ...
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This image shows spidery channels eroded into Martian ground. It is a Sept. 12, 2016, example from HiRISE camera high-resolution observations of more than 20 places that were chosen in 2016 on the basis of about 10,000 volunteers' examination of Context Camera lower-resolution views of larger areas.
Martian 'Spiders' in Sharper Look, Thanks to Volunteers
Sand dunes often accumulate in the floors of craters. In this region of Lyot Crater, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a field of classic barchan dunes on Jan. 24, 2018.
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Blue dune
Once in a Blue Dune
This image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location associated with the novel and movie, "The Martian." It is the tale's planned landing site for the Ares 4 mis...
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This image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location associated with the novel and movie, "The Martian." It is the tale's planned landing site for the Ares 4 mission.
'The Martian' Story's Ares 4 Landing Site
Impact cratering and erosion combine to reveal the composition of the Martian underground by exposing materials from the subsurface.
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Impact cratering and erosion combine to reveal the composition of the Martian underground by exposing materials from the subsurface.
Clay Minerals in Craters and Escarpments on Mars (Figure 3)
This series of images shows carbon dioxide ice sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas) inside a pit at Mars' south pole. Each frame of the animation was taken by the HiRISE camera on NAS...
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This series of images shows carbon dioxide ice sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas) inside a pit at Mars' south pole.
HiRISE Spots CO2 Ice Thawing

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