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Dust streaks on Mars: Colors and photometryPhotometric studies of crater related bright and dark streaks have strongly supported the hypothesis that the bright streaks are excess dust deposits and dark streaks are erosional windows in a partial dust cover. Red-blue (and red-violet) plots show that bright streaks are consistent with mosaics of bright red dust and background material. Here the plains are also consistent with a partial dust cover; the dark streak is the least covered area. Bright and dark streaks both reverse contrast relative to surrounding plains at phase angles over 100 deg in violet filter images. The similar phase behavior of both bright and dark streaks supports the idea that they are both changes in the amount of dust cover. Red-violet plots of bright streaks are most easily explained by mosaics of optically thick dust and plains material. Lengths of bright streaks are independent of their contrasts. This suggests the streak deposition, if in the mosaic patterns indicated above, is a function of available sites of deposition, rather than atmospheric dust loading. Contrasts of dark streaks with plains indicate the plains have fractional dust covers nealy as great as the maximum additional cover in bright streaks. The bright streaks thus store little of the global supply of dust.
Document ID
19840015421
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Thomas, P.
(Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1984
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Washington Rept. of Planetary Geol. Program, 1983
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
84N23489
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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