Olympia Undae (1)

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, a mineral mapping instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (CRISM), began observing Mars after its lens cover was opened on Sept. 27, 2006.
This image shows one of the first regions of Mars measured after CRISM's cover was opened.
CRISM takes images in two basic formats. The first format is a "targeted image" about 10 by 10 Km (about 6 by 6 miles), at about 18 mt (60 feet) per pixel, in 544 colors covering wavelengths of 0,36 to 3,92 micrometers. The second format is a lower-resolution strip 10 Km (about 6 miles) wide and thousands of kilometers long, at 200 mt (660 feet) per pixel, in 72 colors. Many thousands of these "multispectral survey" strips are used to build a global map.
The image is part of the second multispectral survey strip, taken at 22:36 UTC (6:36 p.m. EDT) on Sept. 27, 2006. Only minimal processing of the data has been done at this early point in the MRO's Mission.
The strip crosses part of the north polar region named Olympia Undae, and stretches between 76.7 north latitude, 141.9 east longitude and 85.5 north, 115.8 east. From the top, the northern end of the image crosses layers of dusty and clean ice in the north polar cap. Moving south the image covers dusty sedimentary deposits, dark sand dunes, and outlying polar ice deposits.