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Storm Chaser on Mars

March 20, 2012

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Catches a Twister in Action.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, its backshell and its heatshield are visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Ex...
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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, its backshell and its heatshield are visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. With early spring at the Phoenix landing site comes progressive sublimation of carbon-dioxide frost that has blanketed the lander and surrounding terrain throughout the winter. During the long polar-winter night, atmospheric carbon dioxide freezes onto the surface, building up a layer of frost roughly 30 centimeters (about one foot) thick. In the spring this frost returns to atmosphere gas (sublimates) over the course of several months. This image, part of a seasonal frost monitoring sequence, shows some areas of bare ground are beginning to be exposed. However, extensive frost patches remain in the topographic lows, such as the troughs of the local polygonally patterned surface.
Phoenix Lander Amid Disappearing Spring Ice
Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
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Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket, like the one pictured, will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August 2005 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida.
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In this image, against a bright blue sky streaked with thin clouds, a Lockheed Martin-built gold and white rocket lifts off its pad at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida. Fire bursts from the bottom of the rocket which is surrounded by four lightning suppression towers, two of which are in view in this picture.
Atlas 5 Rocket
This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," in which layers are poorly expressed and difficult to tra...
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This image shows a base map of Mount Sharp with the transition between the "Murray Formation," with the rover's old path marked in white and the new path marked in yellow.
Geological Transition
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen many places on the planet. One of the most interesting is one of the great canyon systems on Mars.
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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen many places on the planet. One of the most interesting is one of the great canyon systems on Mars.
Soaring Over Mars
This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA’s rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
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This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA’s rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
Mars Storm Watch Observations
The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired a seven-band color, wide-angle view of Mars on March 24, 2006, as part of a checkout of the orbiter's payload. Th...
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The Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired a seven-band color, wide-angle view of Mars on March 24, 2006, as part of a checkout of the orbiter's payload. The view looks northward and includes the large Argyre Basin in Mars' southern hemisphere.
View of Argyre Basin
This image shows a lava channel, which lies just to the east of the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons.
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This image shows a lava channel, which lies just to the east of the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons.
Lava Flow Near the Base of Olympus Mons
This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Driv...
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This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Drive" route toward higher layers of the mountain.
Curiosity Heading Away from 'Pahrump Hills'
Here is a view of Earth and its moon, as seen from Mars. It combines two images acquired on Nov. 20, 2016, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with brightness adjusted separ...
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Here is a view of Earth and its moon, as seen from Mars. It combines two images acquired on Nov. 20, 2016, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with brightness adjusted separately for Earth and the moon to show details on both bodies. Relative sizes and distance are correct.
Earth and Its Moon, as Seen From Mars
Blue dots on this map indicate sites of recurring slope lineae (RSL) in part of the Valles Marineris canyon network on Mars. RSL are seasonal dark streaks that may be indicators of liquid water. Th...
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Blue dots on this map indicate sites of recurring slope lineae (RSL) in part of the Valles Marineris canyon network on Mars. RSL are seasonal dark streaks that may be indicators of liquid water. The area mapped here has the highest density of known RSL on Mars.
Sites with Seasonal Streaks on Slopes in Mars Canyons
This view shows the ground covered in the first image of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
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This view shows the ground covered in the first image of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
First Mars Image from Newly Arrived Camera
The largest crater associated with a March 2012 impact on Mars has many smaller craters around it, revealed in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA...
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The largest crater associated with a March 2012 impact on Mars has many smaller craters around it, revealed in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Large, Fresh Crater Surrounded by Smaller Craters
Interact with this 3D model of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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3D model of MRO
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 3D Model
This image shows layered sedimentary rocks and ripples that fill and surround an impact crater in Meridiani Planum, an equatorial region where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian s...
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This image shows layered sedimentary rocks and ripples that fill and surround an impact crater in Meridiani Planum, an equatorial region where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian surface since January 2004.
Crater in Meridiani Planum (2.3 N, 2.6 W) [3-D]
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (the start of the line in upper right) to a major waypoint called ...
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (the start of the line in upper right) to a major waypoint called "the Kimberley."
Curiosity Mars Rover's Route from Landing to 'The Kimberley' Waypoint
Mawrth Vallis contains clay minerals that formed by chemical alteration of rocks by water. The central part of the image is dominated by light-toned materials with curving fractures of many differe...
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Mawrth Vallis contains clay minerals that formed by chemical alteration of rocks by water.
Mawrth Vallis Closeup (3-D)
This sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012, and how that dark scar's appearance ch...
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This sequence of images shows a blast zone where the sky crane from NASA's Curiosity rover mission hit the ground after setting the rover down in August 2012, and how that dark scar's appearance changed over the subsequent 30 months. The images are from HiRISE on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Changes in Scars From 2012 Mars Landing
This map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity followed between April 19, 2015, and Nov. 5, 2015. During this period the mission investigated silica-rich rock targets includin...
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This map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity followed between April 19, 2015, and Nov. 5, 2015.
Curiosity's Path During 2015 Studies of Silica-Rich Rocks
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Graf shakes the hand of JPL Associate Director for Programs, Project Formulation and Strategy Dr. Firouz Naderi. They are celebrating the spacecraft'...
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Graf shakes the hand of JPL Associate Director for Programs, Project Formulation and Strategy Dr. Firouz Naderi. They are celebrating the spacecraft's successful orbit insertion.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Team Members Celebrate Orbit Insertion Success
This view taken from orbit around Mars shows the sand dune that will be the first to be visited by NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover along its route to higher layers of Mount Sharp.
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This view taken from orbit around Mars shows the sand dune that will be the first to be visited by NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover along its route to higher layers of Mount Sharp.
Orbital View of Dune That Curiosity Will Visit
Artist’s concept of Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with NASA’s orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter.
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Artist's concept of Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with NASA's orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter.
NASA's Mars Orbiters Maneuvers as Comet Siding Spring Approaching Mars
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are active flows on warm Martian slopes that might be caused by seeping water.
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Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are active flows on warm Martian slopes that might be caused by seeping water.
Seasonal Flows in the Central Mountains of Hale Crater
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 2)
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 4)

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