Mars: Winds of the War God
This scene on Mars places us on a promontory to command a view of the junction between Melas and Coprates chasmata, where immense landslides and alluvial fans drape the flanks of the canyon walls. The winds of Mars are stirring, sending fine dust into the air that is shot through with crepuscular rays from the Sun filtered by crags in the canyon walls. Off in the distance across the floor of the canyon, a parade of dust devils heralds the arrival of a major dust storm looming on the horizon to infiltrate the canyon. The setting Sun is accompanied by the spectacle of triple haloes formed from the combination of water and co2 ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, while Phobos prepares to pass overhead from the west.
Original Painting by A.A.Schaller & Donna Tracy - OmniCosm Studios for Griffith Observatory, December-May 2005-2006
13050x9900p at 300ppi (FOV width~82 degrees; ~160 pixels/degree)