Monitoring Sand Sheets and Dunes
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Monitoring Sand Sheets and Dunes
ESP_050182_1165  Science Theme: Aeolian Processes
This crater features sand dunes and sand sheets on its floor. What are sand sheets? Snow fall on Earth is a good example of sand sheets: when it snows, the ground gets blanketed with up to a few meters of snow. The snow mantles the ground and “mimics” the underlying topography. Sand sheets likewise mantle the ground as a relatively thin deposit.

This kind of environment has been monitored by HiRISE since 2007 to look for movement in the ripples covering the dunes and sheets. This is how scientists who study wind-blown sand can track the amount of sand moving through the area and possibly where the sand came from. Using the present environment is crucial to understanding the past: sand dunes, sheets, and ripples sometimes become preserved as sandstone and contain clues as to how they were deposited.

Written by: Kirby Runyon  (12 June 2017)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_050261_1165.
 
Acquisition date
10 April 2017

Local Mars time
14:27

Latitude (centered)
-63.306°

Longitude (East)
228.469°

Spacecraft altitude
250.3 km (155.6 miles)

Original image scale range
25.0 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.6°

Phase angle
63.7°

Solar incidence angle
64°, with the Sun about 26° above the horizon

Solar longitude
347.4°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  98°
Sub-solar azimuth:  55.4°
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   (899MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (503MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (360MB)
non-map           (565MB)

IRB color
map projected  (154MB)
non-map           (473MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (225MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (213MB)

RGB color
non map           (463MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (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.