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A Rotating True Color View of the Martian South Pole
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 km, 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.

A rotating view of the Martian south pole from Viking imagery    A rotating view of the Martian south pole from Viking imagery

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   352 x 240   MPEG-1   6 MB

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A close-up view of the Martian south pole with grid lines, from Viking imagery    A close-up view of the Martian south pole with grid lines, from Viking imagery

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   12 MB


An equatorial view of Mars using Viking imagery    An equatorial view of Mars using Viking imagery

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   14 MB


A view of the southern hemisphere of Mars using Viking imagery    A view of the southern hemisphere of Mars using Viking imagery

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   2560 x1920   TIFF   14 MB

Video ID: SVS1999-0028 *
Animator: Tom Biddlecome
Studio: SVS
Date Completed: November 22, 1999
Duration: 1325 frames, 44.0 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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