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A Comparison of Visible and Topographic Data for the Martian South Pole: Version 2
This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 kilometeres, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1/4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the lander's destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.

Rotating a Martian globe, using Viking imagery, to the south pole and fading to topography data from MOLA, showing that large portions of the ice cap may be covered by dust. Note that the permanent frozen cap of carbon dioxide ice is not located directly at the south pole. White colors indicate elevations in excess of 3012 meters, and dark violet shows elevations from 320 to 2150 meters.    Rotating a Martian globe, using Viking imagery, to the south pole and fading to topography data from MOLA, showing that large portions of the ice cap may be covered by dust. Note that the permanent frozen cap of carbon dioxide ice is not located directly at the south pole. White colors indicate elevations in excess of 3012 meters, and dark violet shows elevations from 320 to 2150 meters.

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   352 x 240   MPEG-1   4 MB

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A visible image of the Martian south pole, from Viking data, overlaid over a false color image of the topography of the region as measured by MOLA    A visible image of the Martian south pole, from Viking data, overlaid over a false color image of the topography of the region as measured by MOLA

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   14 MB

Video ID: SVS1999-0028 *
Animators: Tom Biddlecome
Greg Shirah
Studio: SVS
Date Completed: November 22, 1999
Duration: 1059 frames, 35.0 seconds
Scientist: David Smith (NASA/GSFC)
Instrument: MGS/MOLA, Viking
Datasets: Topography
Keywords: Mars
DLESESubject: Space science
Data Collected: MOLA:1997/09/15-1998/11, Viking: 1976-1980
PAOID: g99-097_space
Story: stories/MOLA_south_pole/index.html
Animation Series: Mars Polar Lander



Please give credit for this visualization to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio


*Please note: the SVS does not fulfill requests for copies of the tapes in our library. On some of our animation pages, there is a direct link to a video distribution service from which tapes, handled by the Public Affairs Office (PAO)/Goddard TV, including some of our animations may be ordered. General information on this service can be found here.


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