Olympia Planum: true colour plan view
Olympia Planum: true colour plan view
This section of the landscape in Olympia Planum near the north pole of Mars looks like a painter's watercolour with subtly graded pastel shades representing the different terraced levels. It was captured by the DLR HRSC stereo camera in April 2023 during the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The distance from north to south (from right to left) is around 250 kilometres, while the distance from east to west in the centre of the image is around 100 kilometres. This covers an area slightly larger than the German state of Hesse. The extensive dune field in the left half of the image is more than 150 kilometres in length and extends further south (left). Such dune fields around the north pole of Mars bear some resemblance to so-called ergs, such as those found in the Sahara and on the Arabian Peninsula. At 470,000 square kilometres, the dune fields of the Olympia Undae erg near the north pole of Mars are comparable in size to the Rub Al-Khali in Saudi Arabia.
