Green dots show the locations of orbital detections of carbonate-bearing
rocks on Mars, determined by analysis of targeted observations by the
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) acquired
through January 2008. The spectrometer is on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter.
The base map is color-coded global topography (red is high, blue is low)
overlain on mosaicked daytime thermal infrared images. The topography data
are from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor.
The thermal infrared imagery is from the Thermal Emission Imaging System
camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
The CRISM team, led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory, Laurel, Md., includes expertise from universities, government
agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. Arizona
State University, Tempe, operates the Thermal Emission Imaging System,
which the university developed in collaboration with Raytheon Santa
Barbara Remote Sensing.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and
Mars Odyssey projects for the NASA Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiters.