Active Dune Field on Mars
Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on Mars. As such, it is
continuously monitored with the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment) camera, a science instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, with a new image acquired about every six weeks.
By monitoring the sand dune changes, we can determine how winds vary
seasonally and year-to-year. This observation is one of the more recent Nili
images, acquired on March 1, 2014. Compared to
an image acquired on Nov. 22, 2012, changes are obvious. The ripples on the
dunes have moved, as well some of the dune boundaries, such as the one at upper
left. New landslides on the central dune's lee face are apparent.
Such changes, in just 16 months (and finer scale changes have been seen in
just a couple of weeks), demonstrate the effectiveness of wind in modifying the
Martian landscape.
HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The
University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was
built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science
Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Caption: Nathan Bridges
Caption: Nathan Bridges
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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