PIA06819: Ice Clouds in Color IR
Target Name: Mars
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey
Spacecraft: 2001 Mars Odyssey
Instrument: THEMIS
Product Size: 951 x 2401 pixels (width x height)
Produced By: Arizona State University
Full-Res TIFF: PIA06819.tif (4.023 MB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA06819.jpg (248.1 kB)


Original Caption Released with Image:
figure 1 for PIA06819

Released August 9, 2004
This image shows two representations of the same infra-red image in the Elysium region of Mars. On the left is a grayscale image showing surface temperature, and on the right is a false-color composite made from 3 individual THEMIS bands. The false-color image is colorized using a technique called decorrelation stretch (DCS), which emphasizes the spectral differences between the bands to highlight compositional variations.

The light blue area in the center of this image is a very nice example of a water ice cloud. Water ice is frequently present in the Martian atmosphere as a thin haze. Clouds such as this one can be difficult to identify in a temperature image, but are easy to spot in the DCS images. In this case, the water ice is relatively confined and concentrated which may be due to the topography of the Elysium volcanic construct.

Image information: IR instrument. Latitude 23.2, Longitude 150.1 East (209.9 West). 100 meter/pixel resolution.



Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University

Image Addition Date: