Title: Schiaparelli Hemisphere, Mars

Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona

Information: Mosaic of the Schiaparelli Hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2,500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being a 0.6 kilometer per pixel. This mosaic is composed of about 100 red and violet filter Viking Orbiter images. The images were acquired in 1980 during mid-northern summer on Mars (aerocentric solar longitude 89 degrees). The center of this image is near the impact crater Schiaparelli (latitude - 5 degrees, longitude 20 degrees). The color variations have been enhanced by a factor of two, and the large-scale brightness variations (mostly due to sun-angle variations) have been normalized by large-scale filtering. The dark streaks with bright margins emanating from craters in the Oxia Palus region are caused by erosion and/or deposition by the wind. Bright white areas to the south, including the Hellas impact basin at lower right, are covered by carbon dioxide frost.