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A picture of the north pole on Mars by Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera in 1998.
The largest part of the polar ice cap is permanently covered with a thick layer of ice and dust.
The area of Mars not covered by the ice cap is covered with frost (the large, smoooth pinkish areas). The frost is pink and not white because there is some dust in it.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
A three-dimensional presentation the north pole of Mars. This image was created using over 2 million laser measurements by the Mars Global Surveyor Mission.
Another close-up picture (48 Kb)
A picture by Mars Global Surveyor of a dust storm in the Valles Marineris trough system on Mars.
The dust storm is visible in the bottom third of this picture.
The bluish-white clouds are made of water ice. The red and pinkish clouds are closer to the surface of Mars and contain 'surface dust particles from Mars'.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Picture by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft of storms on Mars in 1999. These pictures were taken 2 hours apart.
The north pole of Mars is visisble at the top of each picture.
Pictures of the Mars Global Surveyor
The white clouds consist of water ice. The orange/brown clouds contains dust. Storms like this are common on Mars.
Picture by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft of the volcanoes in the Tharsis region.
Olympus Mons (mons means mountain) is at the upper left-hand corner - it is nearly 550 kilometers wide.
The white or bluish-white on this picture are clouds. Each large volcano on this picture has its own large cloud hanging near or over it.
These clouds form when warm air containing water vapor rises up the slopes of these volcanoes. The warm air then cools (as it rises to the higher altitude), freezing the water vapor and forming a cloud of ice crystals.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
A global picture of Mars taken by the Mars Global Surveyor MOC (Mars Orbiter Camera) wide angle cameras in April 1999.
Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
