A Sinuous Ridge in Gale Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
A Sinuous Ridge in Gale Crater
ESP_030814_1750  Science Theme: Fluvial Processes
These two images were acquired with different look angles to make a stereo pair. Use your red-blue glasses to view the stereo anaglyph.

This scene covers a region of the floor of Gale Crater to the east of where Curiosity landed, providing regional geologic context to understand the broader-scale geologic history. The sinuous ridges towards the bottom (south) end of the images are of special interest, as these may be former river channels.

The relief is inverted because gravels or alteration made the floor of the channel more resistant to erosion. A closeup image shows a part of this ridge at full resolution.

Written by: Alfred McEwen (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (3 April 2013)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_030748_1750.
 
Acquisition date
21 February 2013

Local Mars time
14:46

Latitude (centered)
-4.723°

Longitude (East)
138.511°

Spacecraft altitude
266.5 km (165.6 miles)

Original image scale range
27.0 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~81 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
4.8°

Phase angle
49.3°

Solar incidence angle
45°, with the Sun about 45° above the horizon

Solar longitude
268.9°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  334.9°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (636MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (325MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (280MB)
non-map           (363MB)

IRB color
map projected  (104MB)
non-map           (313MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (164MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (159MB)

RGB color
non map           (308MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)
10K (TIFF)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.