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The following pictures of Mars were taken the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter currently in orbit around Mars on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The instrument, called MOLA for short, transmits infrared laser pulses towards Mars' surface at a rate of 10 Hz and measures the time it takes for the pulse to bounce back to the spacecraft. Researchers use these measurements to construct precise topographic maps of Mars. These maps are used to study the planet's geophysics, geology and atmospheric circulation. The images and videos were created by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Click on the thumbnail images to see full-sized pictures. Below the Red Dust The maps below are global false-color topographic views of Mars taken at different orientations from the Mars Global Surveyor:  This picture features the Hellas impact basin (in purple, with red annulus of high standing material).
 The picture features the Tharsis topographic rise (in red and white).
 The third figure illustrates the fascinating subtle textures associated with resurfacing of the northern hemisphere lowlands in the vicinity of the Utopia impact basin (at the near-center of the image in blue).
Traversing Mars' Great Divide The two images below are Digital Elevation Models of the Valles Marineris region of Mars.  The pictures were created by combining MOLA gridded topography with color information from Viking image mosaics.
 The views look westward down the canyon system toward the Tharsis rise and there is no vertical exaggeration in the images.
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