NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
December 22, 2000

The following new images were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft:

o Seasons Greetings from the Martian North Pole

The images resides on the Mars Global Surveyor website:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/index.html

The image captions are appended below.

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.

Ron Baalke

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Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Seasons Greetings from the Martian North Pole

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-266, 22 December 2000

On Mars, Northern Hemisphere Summer (and Southern Hemisphere Winter) began
on December 16, 2000. In this December holiday season, many children across
the U.S. and elsewhere are perhaps anticipating an annual visit from a
generous and jolly red-suited soul from the Earth's North Pole. As the
December holidays were approaching, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars
Orbiter Camera (MOC) was busy acquiring new views of the region around the
martian north pole. The three best views obtained this month are shown here.
The top (A) and bottom (C) views show many layers exposed and eroded into
the form of ridges and troughs on shallow slopes within the martian north
polar cap. The middle (B) view is a picture of the rugged, eroded polar ice
cap surface itself. The layers are believed to have formed over tens to
hundreds of thousands of years by deposition of dust and ice each cold
martian winter. These surfaces today all appear to have been eroded. The
brightest material in each image is frost---temperatures at this time of
year indicate that the frost is composed of frozen water. In winter,
temperatures can be cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide, as well.

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Additional Views of Martian North Polar Features:

* COLOR: "The Martian North Polar Cap in Summer," MOC2-231, May 22, 2000
* "What is a 'Residual' Polar Cap?" MOC2-210, March 8, 2000
* "'Cottage Cheese' Texture on the Martian North Polar Cap in Summer,"
MOC2-213, March 8, 2000
* "Martian 'Kitchen Sponge,'" MOC2-214, March 8, 2000
* "Gradual Contact Between North Polar Ice and Layers," MOC2-215, March
8, 2000
* "North Polar Cap Stratigraphy," MOC2-148, July 19, 1999
* "Unconformities and Deformation in the North Polar Layered Deposits,"
MOC2-149, July 19, 1999
* "Frosted Dunes: Chasma Boreale in Early Spring," MOC2-147, July 19,
1999
* "On the Edge: The Retreating Mars Polar Ice Cap," MOC2-116, April 11,
1999
* "MOC Focus Tes Images" (on N Polar Cap), MOC2-83, March 10, 1999
* "Polar Regions: Layered Deposits in North Polar Cap," MOC2-81, December
9, 1998
* "Detailed View of Cliff-face in the North Polar Layered Deposits,"
MOC2-70, October 19, 1998
* "Martian North Polar Cap on September 12, 1998," MOC2-67, September 19,
1998

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Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

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