HiRISE | Cloudy Skies over Hypanis Vallis (ESP_040579_1920)

Cloudy Skies over Hypanis Vallis

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Cloudy Skies over Hypanis Vallis
ESP_040579_1920 Science Theme: Future Exploration/Landing Sites

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This 2015 observation shows a candidate European Space Agency ExoMars landing site in Hypanis Vallis. Instead of imaging ancient fluvial deposits (thought to be the remnants of a delta feed lake), the image shows patchy concentrations of dust clouds.

These clouds are part of the annually occurring Acidalia storm track, a regional dust storm system that originates in the Acidalia-Chryse-Kasei region and propagates southward into equatorial Valles Marineris and beyond. While this image is only partially obscured by dust, many others captured around this time frame were completely dominated by thick clouds of dust. For example, this image in Capri Chasma was rendered useless for geology and will have to be reacquired.

Landing by the ExoMars rover in these kinds of atmospheric conditions would be complicated. That mission was to touchdown on Mars in January 2019. HiRISE will continue to image Hypanis Vallis and other interesting sites on Mars despite the changing weather.

Written by: Matthew Chojnacki (narration: Tre Gibbs) (17 June 2015)

Acquisition date
24 March 2015

Local Mars time
14:25

Latitude (centered)
12.030°

Longitude (East)
314.833°

Spacecraft altitude
277.5 km (172.5 miles)

Original image scale range
31.3 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~94 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
28.2°

Phase angle
26.9°

Solar incidence angle
47°, with the Sun about 43° above the horizon

Solar longitude
313.7°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 96°
Sub-solar azimuth: 322.5°

JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (1432MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (688MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected (663MB)
non-map           (606MB)

IRB color
map projected (271MB)
non-map           (492MB)

Merged IRB
map projected (324MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected (326MB)

RGB color
non map           (454MB)

ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.