Colour overhead view of Tractus Catena
Colour overhead view of Tractus Catena
This colour view has been created using the nadir channel, which is directed vertically down onto the Martian surface, and the HRSC camera system colour channels on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft; north is to the right in the image. The image section shown covers an area of almost 20,000 square kilometres, roughly twice the size of Crete.
Besides the monotone ochre typical of Mars, separate, small dark areas can be made out, especially in the vicinity of natural obstacles, such as the prominent fault structures or on the rims of impact craters. These are dune fields made of dark dust and sand, presumably of volcanic origin, transported here over a great distance by the wind.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.