Dome Dunes on Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Dome Dunes on Mars
ESP_062583_2230  Science Theme: Seasonal Processes
These dark hills of windblown sand are on the small side for being Martian dunes. The smallest is about 88 meters across (for reference the smaller dunes found on Earth are usually one-quarter this size). What’s interesting is the variation in their slip faces: some are steep that are easy to find, showing that the wind is blowing mainly southward. That must be the case because we’re looking at small section of a dune field, most of which is off the edge of the image to the bottom.

But then there’s a big one with weirdly shaped slip face: it looks like a bird with an outstretched wing. For some of these dunes, the slip faces are harder to find. Some appear to wrap around the dunes, suggesting that a wind blowing from the upper right to lower left might also sometimes be able to create a slip face. And one on the lower left has no slip face at all.

Written by: Lori Fenton  (19 August 2020)

 
Acquisition date
02 December 2019

Local Mars time
15:08

Latitude (centered)
42.542°

Longitude (East)
67.069°

Spacecraft altitude
297.1 km (184.6 miles)

Original image scale range
30.2 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~91 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
8.3°

Phase angle
52.0°

Solar incidence angle
44°, with the Sun about 46° above the horizon

Solar longitude
115.2°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  98°
Sub-solar azimuth:  355.0°
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   (522MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (304MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (270MB)
non-map           (219MB)

IRB color
map projected  (82MB)
non-map           (204MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (135MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (130MB)

RGB color
non map           (200MB)
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.