Clouds scoot across the Martian sky in a movie clip consisting of 10
frames taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.
This clip accelerates the motion. The camera took these 10 frames over a
10-minute period from 2:52 p.m. to 3:02 p.m. local solar time at the
Phoenix site during Sol 94 (Aug. 29), the 94th Martian day since landing.
Particles of water-ice make up these clouds, like ice-crystal cirrus
clouds on Earth. Ice hazes have been common at the Phoenix site in recent
days.
The camera took these images as part of a campaign by the Phoenix team to
see clouds and track winds. The view is toward slightly west of due south,
so the clouds are moving westward or west-northwestward.
The clouds are a dramatic visualization of the Martian water cycle. The
water vapor comes off the north pole during the peak of summer. The
northern-Mars summer has just passed its peak water-vapor abundance at the
Phoenix site. The atmospheric water is available to form into clouds, fog
and frost, such as the lander has been observing recently.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf
of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver.
